The Dead Chronicles Part Two: Midnight Rider
by TerminalMadness83
Summary: She used to be a celebrity, now she's just fighting for her life.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

"Aw, damn it!" A white EMT named David said pounding the coffee machine, "This coffee is fucking cold. It's always cold when I get here."

"Yeah, it's always cold for me, too," Max, a curly haired Hispanic declared patting his back, "Them's the breaks." He took a sip of the cold black coffee slightly cringing and placed it down on the counter. David laughed throwing the cup away, "Not such a tough guy, now?" David joked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Max said wiping his lips, "Ugh."

"Who made this?" asked David.

"Somebody probably pissed in it for all I know," replied Max.

"Coming through, coming through!" Four nurses screamed wheeling someone in on a stretcher.

"Another one?" asked Max, "That's what--?"

"Seven," David replied.

"Seven!" Max replied, "Shit, what's going on?"

"I don't know," a black nurse replied rushing by, "Some sort of riot downtown. Whatever is going on, it's bad, we got four more down on the way, two are already dead. I also heard one of the EMT's from county got bitten in the neck."

"Shit," Max exclaimed in disgust.

"He's flatlining!" a doctor screamed as their newest patient began convulsing.

"You guys better get out there," the nurse suggested, "It's getting crazy in here."

"Alright," Max replied, "Let's get going, partner." They both ran through the ER and rushed outside to the truck, "Looks like we're starting early," David declared. They rushed into the truck and sped off as the radio on their truck went haywire. Reports were coming in like a hail of gunfire and as they rushed down the street, first there was calmness and then as they sped further and further the smoke started to rise and then fire, and like they entered the gates of hell, they finally entered the warzone as carnage and mayhem ensued. They thought nothing of it and entered the suburbs not saying a single word to one another.

They came to a screeching halt on their car as the ambulette continued blaring its siren loudly, but the suddenly the deafening alarm was drowned out their shock. The horrific sight before them was all they needed to rattle them. It was chaotic, unbelievable, and they had no idea what to do at that moment as they leaned forward at their seats gazing out at the end of the road. They could see the rows of houses, and then the police cars and fire trucks by the road as carnage ensued before their eyes. Many of them walked the streets staggering in groups, others smashed through houses as people attempted to fight them off.

They gazed in amazement at the sight before them as three tore into a police off alongside the street, seven of them approached their car,

"This is not a riot… is it?" Max asked in horror.

"Oh, my god," David said with a soft whisper, "Max—what the hell is going on here…?"

"I don't know," he replied with barely a sound, "Oh, dear god…!" They stood by the doors crowding quickly groaning and banging against the doors as they watched in horror. "What is wrong with them?" Max asked alarmed. Two women stood by the doors slamming their bloody palms against the glass violently.

"I don't know," replied David, "Don't open the doors."

"Maybe we should help them," Max declared. Max unlocked the door and pressed the knob as David gasped, "No Max, don't open the doors--!"


	2. Midnight Rider: Chapter One

I used to hear from people that in the end of the world, doomsday, there'd be plenty to fear. In the end of the world, there'd be a grand war between man that would shake the earth to its core, in the end of the world, there'd be an onslaught of nuclear explosions that would bring upon a nuclear holocaust, in the end of the world there'd nuclear winter and plagues, in the end of the world humanity would no longer exist. They were wrong, there was no war, there was no nuclear winter, but there was a plague, and it snuck in under the radar.

Before the military could respond, before the big man could turn the keys and press the button, before martial law was declared, the world was over with the quiet hush of death. People, human beings were dead, and just like that… they were alive and became flesh eating monsters, those that were lucky enough, died, those unlucky enough survived, those cursed were eaten and turned into one of those things walking outside, but then again… maybe they were right after all, when doomsday came there was plenty to fear, and it was **_them_…**

** THE DEAD CHRONICLES, PART TWO:  
MIDNIGHT RIDER**

Please wake up. Please wake up. Wake up. Wake up. God damn it, wake up! I've been asking myself that in my head for months now, and somehow, I always think I will. Is this one big bad dream? Am I dead? Did I get damned to hell? If so, what did I do? What horrible sin could I have committed to be subjected to this? And that bastard up there won't answer, he's stopped listening as far as I'm concerned, but I sit and wait, and I mutter to myself. Wake up. Please, wake up. I'm in a coma and this is all delusions and hysteria brought on by medicine, it's a bad dream that I can't wake up to, someday I'm going to wake up and I'll be in bed in my bedroom listening to my band mates walking back and forth arguing about what song to play and who will play the solo come concert time. Fuck, please wake up!

Annie stood over the body panting heavily, her black shoulder length hair smeared all over her sweaty blood stained face, her dark wide eyes and lips quivering as she stood with her foot pressed on the body's chest pointing her shotgun down, panting heavily, her chest heaving. For a moment there was silence and her panting echoing as she quivered from exhaustion, her black winter coat was open revealing her light blue sweater which was drenched in blood. There was nothing but silence for that moment as her panting slowed down, "Come on..." she whispered softly with a quiver, her arms shaking, her eyes never taking its sight off of the body, "Come on..." Suddenly a sharp growl emerged and within a split second she squeezed the trigger and a blast echoed throughout the afternoon sunlight. Blood splattered all over the cracked plaster walls. The hands grasped her boots for a second and gave away as she staggered back from the blood and force of the gun and panted heavily sighing with a very heavy sigh of relief and dropped her arm as the shotgun dangled from her hand. "No mercy," she muttered softly, wiping her face from sweat, "No mercy…"

**Two weeks earlier...**

"Are you going to eat that?" Annie asked holding a stained can of peaches.

"Take it," a bigger African man replied, "I ain't hungry." They could barely see the hands in front of their faces, but what they could make out was the food in front of them. The scent and musk was strong, but it was because they were just so damn hungry. It was twelve hours before they'd eaten anything, and Annie was starving. The four of them stood huddled together around empty cans, it was food they'd found on a grocery store floor, stuff the crowds had left during the rioting while the outbreak broke rampant. Greg stood crouched above the three with his gun up looking through the multiple thing slots out onto the dim afternoon light, the only light that seeped through to them, their shaky eyes looking on to one another for hours. It'd been a day and a half in that small bunker and they were already getting stir crazy, but Annie didn't give a shit, she was hungry and tired, and for now they were basically unnoticed.

"We have enough rations for another day," A young man said rummaging through a large tin of left over army supplies, with his rifle looped around his chest.

"We're not staying here another day," Annie declared, "Are we?"

"I don't know," Greg said taking a bite from a graham cracker.

"I can't stay here anymore," Annie said tipping the can of peaches gulping it down hungrily, "I'm going crazy."

"Besides, I don't know how much longer we can live on canned fruit, crackers, and distilled water from the ground," Iris complained.

"We've been longer in other places," her brother Rob said as his sister Iris attempted to sleep in the corner, "What's so different about here?"

"It's dark," Annie said wiping the fruit syrup on her dirty dark green pants, "I hate the dark, and now with the--situation, I hate it even more."

"We're underground," Greg assured her holding his gun up, "The only door is up there and they don't even know we're down here. If our rations weren't low we could live here."

"Wouldn't be different from the apartment I had growing up," explained Annie, "This is a palace compared to that."

"What does this matter?" asked Rob crouching down in the dirt, "You were rich back then, you had gold records and shit."

"None of that shit matters now," replied Annie, "The only prized possession I have in the world is this shotgun and this pistol right here. Motherfucking shit! Look at us," she said pacing back and forth, "Living like rats. Eating canned fruit, sitting in mud and drinking water from the ground like rats, we're living like rats."

"Will you calm down?" asked Rob.

"No," Annie replied, "I like what I'm doing, thanks. There has to be somewhere, somewhere we can go. Some place there is a village on a large mountain top where people are living unharmed, in a fortress from those things. Somewhere."

"**_There's nowhere out there_**," Greg declared sternly cutting through her pacing, "Sit down and conserve your energy." Annie sat down on the ground and kicked the cans along the ground angrily. It was six months now, and Annie was still hung up on the past that still stared her in the face. She was a goth in the past time, heavy black eyeliner, dark purple lipstick, piercings, killer body and she was in a smash rock band that was breaking the charts, but that all ended when the outbreak happened, and her world, her glamorous world was over within a matter of days, and all the gold records, mansions, and money meant nothing, but there was one thing, one relic from her past that remained with her, her purple streaked hair. The purple streaks in her black hair remained six months later which was odd considering she usually had to redo it for her image, and there it was staring her back in the face.

She wasn't the girl she used to be obviously and she was now teamed with a large man whom she met halfway, a military general who strayed away from his unit who were literally slaughtered amidst the ambush of walking dead, there was Rob and Iris, brother and sister who they discovered in a city, what city--Annie couldn't remember anymore--but they had tagged along like star-crossed fans only because she was a big music star and somehow couldn't let go that she was no longer a celebrity, even after everything that had gone down. She was only another walking meal, but she gave up trying to convince them and just went back to trying to survive.

She knelt down into a puddle of mud water and rinsed the sticky syrup from her hands gazing back at her exhausted reflection. It was amazing how long she survived but she did, and she fought everyday.

"What was it like?" asked Rob.

"What was what like?" Annie asked with a heavy annoyed sigh checking her gun.

"Being famous. You know, having all that money?"

"Oh for fuck sake," Annie replied annoyed, "When are you going to get over this? Does this look like fun to you? Do you think you're some roadie of mine or something? This isn't fun. I don't wash my hands in mud water because it's pleasing to me."

"I'm--sorry," Rob replied sadly.

"And for the love of Christ, if you say I'm sorry one more time, I'm going to beat you to death with this fucking rifle," she threatened walking off.

"Don't talk to him like that," Iris argued angrily.

"Can we calm down please?" asked Greg, "Stop arguing and just be quiet. We're not the enemies here."

"So, when do we leave?" asked Annie standing over Greg.

"Very soon," replied Greg, "We have to find food or, maybe survivors."

"Should we really move?" asked Iris.

"We're running out of food," replied Greg, "We should move while we can, it's the smart thing to do, we have to remain one step ahead."

"They're going to be out there waiting for us," replied Rob.

"They're everywhere," Annie argued wrapping her scarf around her neck, "Doesn't matter where we walk, they're going to be right there in front of us."

"But if we stood here we could survive longer," Rob debated.

"Or not," replied Greg, "Look at this place."

"I know, look at the muddy water," Annie explained, "There's all kinds of bacteria and shit in there and we're running low on food."

"I don't want to leave, either," Greg admitted, "but if we stay here any longer we'll starve, and the longer we stay in here the sooner it will take for them to find us. Those things can smell warm meat and if one of them finds us... well, it only takes one of them to know we're here, and then we're dead." Rob looked over to Iris who sat along a small hill curled up in her winter coat, Rob and Iris was brother and sister, still pretty young, but has been with Annie and Greg for a good long while. They were out of their element considering they lived basically sheltered lives before everything happened, and survival was not their primary talent.

Annie, being impatient and easily agitated as always did not care for the two, to her they were dead weight and slowed down her chances of surviving that she'd mastered for months, not to mention they always followed her the most.

"So, when do we move out?" asked Annie.

"Soon," Greg said, "The coast isn't clear right about now." He gazed outside through the slots and saw shadows moving within the sunlight, they were there, but Greg was unable to see how many there were exactly, the field was humongous and the grass was tall which increased the risk of an attack.

"What do you see out there?" Annie asked crouching down behind Greg.

"The same things I always see," replied Greg, "Them." Shadows slowly stumbled by the small slots in their bunker, the features of the infected weren't clear in the bright sunlight, but they knew they were out there and still very much littered among the fields.

"What's going to happen if we can't find a place to crash for tonight?" asked Rob.

"That's a good question," Annie admitted.

"We'll go quick and we won't stop," Greg explained inspecting his shot gun, "If we go through them, preserve our bullets and keep our eyes and ears open, we'll find somewhere and hide, and then we'll move on again. We did it all the time on patrol in Iraq."

It didn't matter how confident Greg was about their maneuvers, Rob gave a good proposal, probably the only proposal that Annie agreed with since they met, and his question put some doubt in her mind that they'd survive leaving that bunker, and if by some event Greg was taken down in the field, she'd basically be on her own.

"We have to go now while the sun is up," Greg warned looking through the slot.

"B-But i-it's day time, they'll see us," Iris argued nervously.

"But if we go at night time, we won't see them," replied Greg, "Get up."

"We're dead either way," Annie boasted.

"Why do you say that?" Iris asked nervously.

"We've been in the dark for too long, our eyes won't adjust and we'll be blinded for a second," she replied with a smile that signaled her fading sanity and lust for life, "And a second is basically all they need." Iris looked over to Rob with a nervous grimace as Greg checked his clips.

Annie looked over at the two with an expectant scowl and walked over to the corner gathering her supplies and guns. Iris and Rob sighed nervously and stood up preparing their guns as Annie cocked her shotgun placing it on a rock, then she took her pistol, checked the barrel and placed it in to her holster. She cocked her rifle placing it around her shoulder and picked up her shotgun, all of which were taken from the dead bodies of people who didn't survive against the infected, she'd yanked it from their cold stiff hands, the pistol she took from a severed hand that she still remembers noticing it'd be chewed off at the wrist.

She was still shocked that she'd managed to keep her sanity for all these months, but somehow she did, and it helped her survive out there with the thousands of walking dead just inches from their location, she played her music back again and again in her mind, the music she'd created in the old world when she was in her band playing concerts, they kept her sane, the lyrics burned in her brain and she muttered them over and over, even when blowing one of the infected corpses brain out. She continuously played them in her head, and just went about her business,

"Locked and loaded," Annie declared grasping her shotgun with one hand.

"Remember," Greg said cradling his rifle, "Keep your eyes and ears open, no talking, no whispering, try to sustain your heavy breathing, because we need all of the silence to hear them in case one of those things decides to get ballsy and pounce on us."

"What if we have to run?" asked Iris.

"They're slow," Annie explained, "If we walk fast they can't catch up to us or group together."

"Stay out of corners and small spaces," Greg urged sternly, "If they catch you there, then you're out of luck."

"We should really get going before the sun goes down," urged Annie looking back nervously.

"Alright," Greg replied. Iris and Rob held up their rifles in preparation with wide eyes and gaping mouths, Annie cocked her shotgun again and Greg stood crouched down, grabbed the handlebars from the lid, twisted with all his might, and pushed up as the sunlight poured into the hole blinding the group after not seeing solid light for two days. Greg emerged from the ground bunker looking amidst the tall grass with wide eyes which was difficult since the sunlight was blinding. He sighed from the fresh air and looked around slowly climbing from out of the bunker. Crickets were all that could be heard in the distance and it seemed as if the coast was clear.

"Come on," Greg whispered crouching down, "Hurry it up." He stood up slowly and cocked his gun slowly raising it as Annie, Rob and Iris slowly emerged from the bunker, guns in tow. Annie panted softly from anxiousness and held up her shotgun, Rob and Iris stood beside each other looking around as the silence was deafening yet very unsettling.

"Which way do we go?" Iris whispered.

"I don't know," replied Greg, "It's pretty quiet and there's some tall grass, so we should walk where it starts clearing, around there near those trees, stay together!"

"Let's hurry this up before the sun goes down," Annie urged. Their legs were heavy, not just from exhaustion, not just from walking and running for days on end, but from utter terror, terror that consumed the four of them, Greg and Annie, Rob and Iris, all pointing their guns out trying to stop the shaking as they stomped through the grassy fields.

They stopped and drew their guns as Greg stood in front listening. Suddenly shapes began emerging from the fields over the groves and brush of grasses, and out from the fields, scattered like wildfire were the walking dead, some staggering with their arms out in front, others in a daze with their arms dangling from them as if sleepwalking, they were scattered, but nonetheless they formed a barricade hard to get through without being attacked. Iris held her hand to her mouth in fright near tears as Rob held her hand drawing his gun,

"They don't see us," Greg whispered, "Let's keep walking and we're safe."

"They spotted us," Iris said with wide eyes.


	3. Midnight Rider: Chapter Two

"They didn't," argued Rob, "Come on." They began walking further down the hill panting softly as the infected staggered along the fields, eerily silent, walking in rhythm with their eyes glazed over, their mouths gaping wide. _How did it come to this? What happened to life? What did I do to deserve this?_

**8 Months Earlier ...**

She was dressed in her usual concert war fatigues. Black leather, fish net long sleeved shirt, her trademark purple streaks in her hair and dark make-up. Annie belted her usual vocals along pass the crowds on stage kicking and thrusting as the crowd roared. Their concert was in the middle of a warehouse out in downtown New York where blue lights strobed and pulsed around the crowds. People roared, jumped and cheered, guards kicked people out by the barrels full, and the music was deafening, it was an electric feeling she and her band had become all too fond of. It was almost disorienting, but "Little Annie" as they called her, was in her element. She and "Blackout" preferred the big venues, she and her four band mates, but somehow they got wrangled in to playing a smaller venue for one time only, to reach their fans. They'd reached the top of the playlist for their target audience with top selling albums and the usual infamy that came with being a heavy metal band. In the distances, crowds roared as the heavy metal music blared aloud and the guitar solo went into play. Annie held up the microphone dripping with sweat and looked around.

There were reports of riots and attacks lately in the news, urgent reports, but the audience didn't seem to hesitate to appear in droves to the concert despite the attacks and hysteria that was evident as they rode into town that morning in their limousines watching people run home, crowds of people on curbs trying to call home, and stores closing up shop at only 2 pm as soldiers stood guard on the streets. Their agent persisted nonetheless and convinced their venue to let them play to boost morale, but she didn't know what good it was doing. Packing the warehouse to the hilts and roaring aloud like monsters at the music before them, Little Annie and Blackout put on a kick ass show, and Annie had to keep going because she knew it'd take away whatever pain New York was experiencing away, and she could see the moshers below letting out their aggression. The reports weren't rampant, but sporadic.

Some of the attacks were happening in ghettos across New York, isolated incidents, and then slowly it seemed to be escalating, as the more upper class areas of New York began breaking out with reports of the attacks, but she didn't pay much attention to the news, she was too busy doing interviews and appearing on television. But somehow as she stood on stage and experienced what was going on, the worry seemed to sink in. The slow music began to start as the guitars began slowly revving up like an engine and the lights pulsed blinking on and off. She suddenly caught wind of a sight that drew her attention; oddly enough, time seemed to slow down as she stopped in her tracks noticing a woman digging her teeth into a young man's neck and tear at him with her teeth. The look on his face, the far off glazed eyes and wide gaping mouth as blood squirted from his neck would forever stay in her mind. For a second she focused in, watching as the lights blinked and suddenly her attention focused elsewhere as her guitarist Denny poked her, "Hey!" He said shouting over the music, "What's wrong?"

"What?" she asked, breaking from her daze.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked confused, "You missed your cue."

"Nothing," she replied incoherently, "N-nothing. It's just—sorry." Did she just see what she thought she saw? She sighed and attempted to sing as the song continued. She looked back and they were gone. She sighed and went back into her performance without missing a beat as the crowd went on, but she continued looking to the side stunned at what she saw. Was she just going nuts? She nodded trying to break from the funk as the song went on, but she couldn't help wondering what it was she had just lay her eyes on within the crowd.

Finally, as the crowds became ever louder, and people threw each other around in the mosh pit, a bright beaming light broke through to the warehouse windows that cut through the musical number like a knife. Annie and the band shielded their eyes looking out at the large windows as they heard helicopters in the distance. The music had die down and the crowds slowly subsided with boos and jeers as the groups of black helicopter loomed overhead flashing their spotlights and announced in great alarm, "This has been deemed a danger zone, please go back to your homes, immediately!" The crowds jeered aloud practically near rioting as Annie and the others were pushed off stage by their crew as the crowds looked on booing.

"What's going on?" asked Annie wiping her face of sweat.

"I don't know," her agent said, "Sounds serious."

"We were in the middle of a fucking concert!" Denny yelled, "What the hell? We're still getting paid right?"

"I don't know," their agent replied talking over his cell phone.

"You tell that asshole in the agency that if he doesn't pay us, I'm going to raise hell!" Denny screamed. Annie dropped the microphone on the stage and walked through the dark hall as crowds awaited them backstage screaming and calling their names.

"Can they just stop everything like that?" asked Annie looking back as the helicopters roared above.

"Yes, they can," the agent said closing his cell phone, "It seems that there's been a report of rioting around here and they're closing this place off to public events."

"Rioting," Denny said dropping his guitar, "Rioting my ass. And what the fuck was up with those lights? I could barely see the crowd!" The band continued barking in anger as the people screamed and reached for the group as Annie signed autographs smiling; the rest of the group signed autographs as the bodyguard grabbed Annie and pulled her away. Suddenly, someone from the crowd bit onto the guard's arm as he yelped and shoved them back into the crowd. Guards grabbed the person and threw them outside as the bodyguard grabbed his arm.

"Damn," he said to Annie holding his arm, "They were trying to bite you."

"Are you okay?" she asked inspecting his arm.

"Yeah," he said rubbing the wound, "Damn, that fucker bit me hard."

"Animals," Denny said walking into the dressing room, "They'll do anything to grab ahold of us." He walked out in front of the crowd and screamed, "You're all animals!" The crowd roared in reaction as he stormed off; Annie gave a chuckle as she continued signing autographs and patted the guard's back,

"Take care of that, okay," Annie said walking off.

"Thanks, Annie," her bodyguard said holding back the crowds.

"Who cares," Denny said strumming his guitar, "Maybe the cops stopping the show was a god send."

"What makes you say that?" asked Charlie the bass player.

"The show sucked," Denny declared.

"What?" Annie asked as they all protested.

"It did!" Denny argued, "Who the hell thought playing in a warehouse would be good for us?"

"We thought it would be good for the band to get down to their roots," their agent replied holding his cell phone to his ear, "We'll know better next time."

"I thought there was some good energy out there," Annie suggested leaning against the couch.

"Energy!" Denny yelled, "The acoustics sucked, the crowd was rowdy, they were too busy screaming they couldn't even hear the music, you missed your cue, and Ethan was fumbling over the drums out there."

"Leave me alone," Ethan muttered coughing weakly, "I'm sick over here for god sake. Have a heart."

"You've been sick for two days, now," Annie said, "What do you have?"

"I don't know," Ethan replied, "Everything. Fever, cold sweats, coughing, shivering… you name it, I got it."

"Maybe it's the flu," Denny replied.

"I don't know," Ethan replied.

"Wow," Annie cringed, "You're all pale, too."

"I thought it was make-up," joked Denny.

"No," he replied feeling his head, "It's really bad, man."

"Do you know when it started?" asked Annie.

"I don't remember," replied Ethan, "Probably when that stupid bitch bit me back stage in Toronto."

"What the hell is all this biting about?" asked Denny, "Is this the fans new extreme way of wanting a piece of us? Did you put that in the newsletter?" Their agent flipped him the bird silently in response.

"I'm just going to go lie down," Ethan said staggering off, dragging his feet, "I'm feeling very, very tired."

"Come on, Annie," her agent said grabbing her, "The police are clearing the place out; we have to get you guys out of here."

"Wait--," she said being carried by her entourage, "What about everyone else?"

"Don't worry, Annie," Denny announced sticking his head out of their dressing room, "We'll take the other bus behind you." She looked back as Denny waved goodbye with a smile, but she couldn't help but worry as Denny went to go get Ethan in his dressing room. She looked out onto the stadium as police covered the whole stadium floor armed with rifles and firearms, guarding the doors as the buses stood waiting the band's arrival.

"Jesus," Annie said looking around, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," her agent replied now alarmed, "But they're telling us to leave **_right now_**. And what's worse is they're starting to declare martial law on certain areas."

"Okay," Annie replied, "Just make sure the guys catch up."

"I will, now go, go, go, go," he urged shoving her onto the bus and slamming the doors shut. She looked over at the crowds of guards blocking the doors as people were escorted and pushed out the doors, screams emerging in some corners of the warehouse. She became increasingly worried about her band mates as she caught a glimpse of Ethan being carried out into the next bus, his eyes glazed over. The tour bus drove down the highway as road blocks became more and more widespread along the streets and the lights from the helicopters beamed through the tinted windows above.

"Are they behind us?" Annie asked anxiously looking in the back window.

"They're right there," the driver pointed at the rear view mirror, "Don't worry." She sighed and sat down in the seat attempting eagerly to calm down, but she couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness. "How was the concert?" asked the driver.

"Pretty good," she replied twiddling her fingers nervously, "But we made some mistakes, Denny was pretty pissed at us."

"Why aren't you guys in the same bus?" he asked.

"Denny told me to go ahead," she replied, "I saw them carrying Ethan into the second bus."

"Yeah, I heard he was sick," replied the driver. The bus behind her trailed them and suddenly there was a loud squeal from the back of the bus and it blew off the floor, spun from the ground, and toppled over smashing onto its side. It slid along the floor pounding into the bus as Annie clutched onto the seats. The bus was pushed along the road as the metal foundation grinded along the concrete and finally toppled over spinning in the air. Annie let out a loud shriek as the car slammed onto the ground next to the other bus and slid along the floor of broken glass and shards of metal. The busses screeched loudly for about a block through the roads until finally they began to slow down.

There was a long silence along the roadways as the busses settled along the ground bobbing up and down as the twisted metal slowly spun around the glass. A slow fire drifted from the engines as Annie lay on her back along the cracked windows out cold. She let out a soft groan as blood dripped down her forehead and opened her eyes looking out onto the darkness of the sky. She slowly sat up as the glass fell off her body and looked over at the driver who lay twisted beneath the glass and rubble, his neck crushed underneath the windshield. She held her mouth muffling her cries and felt her body for breaks or bruises; luckily only her forehead was cut, and she had a pounding headache.

She stood up from the ground and felt around for an exit. The doors were jammed shut from the wreckage. She couldn't hear any police sirens, so they were obviously on an abandoned road somewhere. In the distance she heard a slight scream, but assumed it was the bus behind her. She wrapped her leather shirt around her elbow and began slowly smashing the glass and finally shattered it with all her might. She was weakened, her arms felt heavy and there was an eerie silence all around her. She grabbed onto the window sills and pulled herself up whimpering softly as she swung her legs around and finally climbed onto the top. She looked around and jumped onto the ground which crunched underneath her feet.

"Denny?" she called in a meek voice, "Ethan? Charlie? Are you guys okay? Please say something." Her voice quivered from the cold. She began to whimper and staggered around the wreckage looking around for her band mates. "Ethan…?" she called with a whimper, "Anyone?" There was a soft crunching behind her as she looked over at the bus's windows. They were shattered as if something had smashed through it. She turned to see two figures standing in the darkness growling softly. "Ethan?" she asked standing back, "Is that you?"

"Hey!" Greg screamed shooting, "Snap out of it!" Annie shook her head and sighed shooting ahead them as two of the walking corpses approached her. "Shoot them, god damnit!" Greg hollered as they fended off against rapidly growing groups of the walking dead. "They keep coming!" Rob yelled shooting rapidly.

"We have to run," Iris urged in tears, shooting wildly.

"Running is a good idea," Annie replied, "Now!" They lowered their guns and began making their way across the grassy fields as the dead followed behind them, reaching and grabbing at them.

Greg smacked three to the side and made a trail as they ran across the field scattered with the dead which staggered along grass. They weren't sure where they were at the moment, but the fields of the dead seemed almost endless as they fled, though they were just buying time for the inevitable. Iris shot from behind screaming incoherently as Annie yanked her by the arms shoving her along with them, "Quit wasting bullets!" She screamed as they ran across the field. Iris tumbled to the ground as the dead staggered over to them. Annie yanked her from the ground and pulled her as Greg and Rob shot along the fields.

Greg noticed instantly the patterns the dead were making and lurched forward, "They're forming a circle!" Greg yelled, "Don't let them box you in!"

"How the fuck can they form a circle!" Rob yelled. The dead were slowly forming one by surprise, something the rest of the group didn't catch, and Greg took a bold step tackling two of them to the ground and shot at them as three began grabbing at him. Annie knocked Iris to the ground, "Shoot or get the fuck out the way!" Annie screamed at Iris. She ran forward and shot behind Greg knocking off two of the dead that grabbed at his back as he fought them off. Iris stood up as the dead gathered around her and fumbled with her rifle shooting them down.

"Get them off you!" Annie screamed as Greg fought them off.

"I'm trying!" He screamed knocking two of them off his shoulder, "They're ganging up on me." One nude female corpse with a chewed face snapped at Greg growling with her mouth wide open as Greg yanked his head away and threw her to the ground. Rob ran for his sister as Annie shot down the two that grabbed at Greg's jacket. Greg knocked a female corpse into a ditch and stood back panting aloud and dropped on the grass panting in relief.

"Did they get you?" Annie asked anxiously.

"Hold on," He replied, anxiously rustling his clothes and feeling around his neck and arms, "No." He and Annie let out a loud sigh. Annie looked back in fright, as they again began quickly spreading around them. "Rob, Iris!" Greg called waving them over, "Come on, we have to get out of here before they re-group!" Rob kicked a few of the dead to the side as he held Iris' hand yanking her across the field. Annie slid down a mud hill with her rifle and crashed into one of the dead. She turned quickly looking out onto a group of seven of them crowded around her. She let out a shriek and rushed up the hill as they jumped onto her tearing and clawing their way up her body. She crawled desperately, howling aloud, but no one could hear her above, and Greg's yells could barely be heard in the distance.

She crawled further and further finally escaping their clutches and saw no option but to run as they growled and groaned aloud jumping at her. Greg found her above and grabbed her by the hand pulling her from the muddy hill and they ran to Rob and Iris who fended the dead off desperately. "Shit!" Annie said angrily, wiping herself off, "Seven of those fuckers nearly got me!"

"They tend to sneak up on you, eh?" Greg replied looking down at them as they crawled up the hill.

"We have to find somewhere to hide," Rob warned, "Or else we're going to be like this all night long."

"And by the looks of them, they don't tire too easily," replied Annie.

"Come on, let's just make a run for it until we lose them," Iris pleaded.

"Okay, let's go," Greg declared.

"I'm warning you," Annie said shoving Iris' rifle in her arms, "Either pull your own weight or get eaten. I am not carrying you the whole way!" She walked off brushing her legs off, "I'm having enough trouble keeping my own ass out of harm's way."

"Leave her alone," Rob warned as Annie walked off, "Come on, Iris." They rushed across the field passed the rising groups of walking dead who groaned and staggered to them with their hands out at front salivating in hungry moans. Hours seemed to pass as they did nothing but shoot and run, shoot and run. They didn't stop to eat, they didn't stop to breathe, and they didn't stop rest, all they did all day was shoot and run. The sun seemed to sink down into the horizon in what seemed like one long day after the other and finally they'd found a hiding spot in a small hut along the back of a group of trees.

Hours had passed and night seemed to gather along the almost endless fields and trees. They hadn't seen the walking dead in quite a time, and the hut had given them the much needed shelter from the outside elements and finally they'd been able to rest. Annie sat away from the window with her gun tucked along the top of her knees and she sat against the wall asleep. Iris lay on the ground curled in a ball as Greg and her brother sat by the window looking for signs of trouble. Shadows passed through the moonlight that shone through the windows, and they were all clearly winded from their long day.

"I thought we'd never find shelter," Rob marveled exhausted.

"Me either," replied Greg holding his gun close to him.

"I don't know if I can run any more," he grunted taking off his boots, "My feet are sore as hell."

"We head out in the morning," Greg ordered.

"The morning?" Rob complained, "Can't we head out in the afternoon?"

"We have to go bright and early while we still have the sun," Greg explained, "If those fuckers catch us at night, that's it for us. It's better for us to go while the sun is still out. Get some sleep, and I'll wake you up when we're ready to head out, okay?"

"Fine," Rob sighed. He sat down beside Greg with his gun tucked up on his shoulder and leaned his head back hurrying to sleep.

In the distance as they slept, Annie felt it necessary to survey her surroundings and stood up while everyone slept, even Greg whose head was leaned against the receiver of his rifle dozing off as there was a certain uncomfortable silence amidst the land. She slowly tip-toe through the hut, past Rob and Iris, and looked up at rusty cupboards hanging from the walls above the windows. She slightly opened the doors and looked out on to stained cans of food and small bottles of water, obviously kept there for the owners who felt it necessary to store it for the outbreak. Useless, but to her they were gold. She looked back hiding the goldmine from the three and began shoving the water and canned food in to her jackets as she panted softly from hunger.

She quickly twisted the cap off the bottle and took large gulps from the warm but fresh water quickly finishing off a pint, and then went to work on the other.

"Is that food?" asked Iris.

"Go to sleep," replied Annie.

"That's food," Iris noticed.

"Fine, its fucking food," Annie declared coldly, "Take what you can, alright?" Iris stood up quickly and walked over to the cupboard as Annie stood to the side, "And be quiet about it," Annie warned, "One noise and we're fucked." Iris nodded silently, looking through the cans hungrily and sat down beside Annie as they popped the keys from the lids and dug in.

"I'm starving," Iris declared softly.

"Me too," Annie replied crossing her legs, "If I wouldn't have made any noise, my growling stomach would have gave me away."

"I know," Iris scoffed, "We should save some for the guys."

"Yeah, sure," Annie muttered between bites as the immersed her hand in a can of corn even sipping the juice from it, "Oh this tastes like heaven."

"Wish I was there," Iris replied.

"Don't drink too much," Annie warned, "We can't stop for bathroom breaks out there." Iris nodded taking little sips from the pints of water.

She finally stored whatever was left of the cans into her jacket pockets and slowly tip-toed back over to the corner and leaned her head against the wall sighing softly. Iris was still eating some of the cans of food. Then, again, her dreams continued its way to her psyche. Minutes seemed to pass, but it was only their exhaustion that made it that way. Annie awoke suddenly to Greg's gun cocking loudly and murmured incoherently as Greg stood over her loading his gun,

"What time is it?" she whispered half asleep.

"The sun is up," Greg said looking outside, "That says its day time, which means it's time to leave."


	4. Midnight Rider: Chapter Three

"Oh, god," Annie muttered wiping her eyes, "I must have slept for… five minutes…"

"I counted about four hours," Greg replied, "Maybe."

"Where are we going now?" asked Annie.

"Who knows?" replied Greg, "We'll stop at the next shelter, or when we see people who don't want to eat us."

"We have more of a chance finding shelter for the night than we do finding people that aren't already dead," replied Annie.

"Hey," Greg said nudging Rob, "Time to go. Annie, wake Iris up."

"Iris," Annie said rudely nudging her with the barrel of her rifle, "get up."

"What time is it?" asked Iris sitting up.

"Who cares?" replied Annie, "We got another day of running ahead of us."

"I don't know how much more I can run," replied Iris.

"She's right," replied Rob.

"No, she's not," replied Greg, "We're going to keep running because we have to. Because, if we want to live, we have to get up and go, or sit here and wait to die… and we will surely die if we sit here."

"They didn't find us last night," Iris argued.

"It was one night," Annie replied.

"Exactly," replied Greg.

"I'll tell you what," explained Annie, "Why don't you two stay here and keep those things company and we'll go up ahead."

"Very funny," replied Iris.

"Lay off, Annie, would you?" Rob replied.

"Or what?" Annie argued, "Last I checked it was you two tailing **_us_**, remember? We didn't ask you to follow us halfway across the country."

"We were lost and scared," Iris argued, "What the fuck did you want us to do?"

"Well, if you're going to follow us, then you can at least be willing pull your own weight," Annie argued.

"God will you lay off, Annie?" Rob argued, "It was a mistake."

"I slipped, okay?"

"When are you going to learn this isn't a game?" Annie explained, "There's no room for slip ups around here. You slip up, you die, got it?"

"If you two are done fighting," Greg interrupted, "We're burning sunlight."

"Fine," Annie said as they all stood up groaning in exhaustion and fatigue. She stood in front of Iris, "Keep up with us, or you're going to end up dead, got it?" Annie warned. She walked off holding her gun as Iris sighed disappointed, holding her gun up to her chest. "We ready?" They stormed out of the hut bearing their guns and the field looked empty from plain view. Two of the dead were drifting around them, but there seemed to be none of the usual barricade of walking dead. Rob aimed at them as Greg lurched at him smacking the rifle down.

"What are you doing?" Rob asked annoyed.

"Think! They don't see us," Greg replied, "If you shoot them not only will you waste bullets we have very little of, but you're going to attract attention we don't need. Use your fucking head."

"Alright, sorry," Rob replied angrily.

"Let's go before they see us," Annie urged walking up ahead. They rambled on through the fields, pressing further. Their heads were heavy, arms weighed down from the exhaustion they'd experienced from days of running non-stop and they couldn't take it anymore. Something was bound to give sooner or later, and they sensed it.

Greg had been the unofficial guardian of the three despite the fact he didn't want to. He was never one to leave people to die, but still he hated having to school these kids right in the middle of hell. He'd taught Annie to lock, load, and shoot, and she did it damn well for someone with zero experience. She held the shotgun like it was an extension of her body, it may as well have been. She knew how to handle small and large firearms now after her long travels alongside Greg's experienced hands. He was plenty experienced; he was an imposing older man whose body was more likely a killing weapon instead of his guns, but he was good with the shot and his eyes were always open and ears always listening about for the snap of a twig, that one small sound that signaled the end.

His voice was commanding, even in a whisper and when he talked, they surely listened to him. Rob and Iris never left each other's side, even after they had lost their entire family to those things walking around; Rob kept a watchful vigil on his younger sister. She was tough, but around those things she didn't know how to go about it, and that was her main fault. She was horrified of them, and how do you fight something you're too frightened to go near? Annie on the other hand had adjusted despite being emotionally torn inside. Having to watch everyone she knew disintegrate into the brainless monsters outside was all she needed to break down, but somehow she never did, because she never found the opportunity to be alone and let it go, but maybe it was a good thing after all, because right now a mental case wasn't needed, so she inflicted her rage on them with her firearms.

They continued pressing on for hours and hours, luckily not finding a single one of those monsters around them; they were in a secluded area, they decided. Maybe they were entering an area without them for once. It sure was a welcome change, but they didn't stop. No need to stop, and it definitely wasn't a smart thing to do at that time of the day; their luck was looking bad though as though they'd found no walking dead, they also hadn't found a decent place to camp out, not in the woods or under a small envelope in a hill. There were open fields followed by trees in the distance. Yet somehow the sky was still gray from all the billows and blankets of smoke that cascaded the air once cities crumbled within matters of days. It was a new fixture for the sky which was doomed to no longer be blue.

Greg sighed softly holding his gun up looking around as the three followed panting softly. "Fuck," Annie whispered softly, "I knew it."

"We'll find somewhere," Greg assured her.

"What if we don't?" asked Rob concerned.

"Well, we'll have to camp out here if worse comes to worse," Greg suggested.

"Here?" Annie asked waving her arms, "In the middle of the fields?"

"We'd have no other choice," Greg shrugged.

"How would we do it?" asked Rob.

"Well, one of us could stay up while the other three slept," Greg explained panting from exhaustion, obviously heavily winded from the traveling but trying really hard not to show it, "We'd take shifts."

"Or we could wear a deli board on us reading "Free lunch"," Annie remarked.

"We have no other choice, Annie," Greg argued, "If you can grow wings, why don't you fly us out of here?" Annie huffed annoyed and scared looking down and nodding realizing he was right, "I know you're scared," Greg explained, "We're all scared. I don't want to die. But sometimes we just have to work with what we have."

"This will never work," Annie muttered. Greg didn't reply, only looked around sighing angrily. Truthfully, even he thought the idea was bad, but right now the bad idea looked like the only idea.

In the bushes, behind a grouping of tall trees, three men stood atop a metal behemoth watching the four survivors make their way across the middle of the field talking softly and waving around. The leader sat along the top of the large metal machine and watched with ease slowly swigging a bottle of beer with a half smirk as his two partners dropped into the machine,

"Hmm," the leader said softly, "A short guy, two young girls, one a goth, and one big motherfucking black guy. Wow, and their artillery is nice."

"What do we do?" asked the driver.

"Well, let's pay them a visit," the leader shrugged lightly, tossing his bottle into the trees. There was a silence that was most unsettling in the woods, and the group could sense it and a flock of birds rustled in the trees flying off.

They drew their guns at the trees in alarm, "Something scared them off," Rob declared nervously.

"No shit," replied Annie.

"What do we do?" asked Iris.

"We shoot or we run," replied Greg, "Make a choice."

"I want to run," replied Rob.

"I don't have anymore running left in me," replied Iris.

"Well, try," Annie replied angrily, "I'm running." They all turned to run off as suddenly there was a loud boom followed by the deafening roar of an engine that blasted through the trees.

They all staggered back in surprise as the trees toppled down upon themselves and a humongous green and red steel tank blasted through the woods steamrolling the two walking dead beneath its wheels with a mighty crunch,

"Look--!" Rob said with a laugh, "Help!"

"No," Greg said pulling him back, "We don't know that."

"What are you talking about!" Rob argued, "They can help us."

"We don't know that," Annie replied angrily, "We don't know who they are."

"I say we break for it," Iris declared staggering back nervously.

"Just keep your guard up," Greg warned.

The tank finally came to a screeching halt, the cannon pointing at the group as the engine died down and there was a brief silence. The top door popped open and out came a husky young man who climbed from the tank's cockpit and slowly dropped onto the ground without a word. He wiped his pants off and held his hands to his waist sighing as he approached them, "Howdy," He said with a stone face. The group didn't reply to his greeting, they stood and watched as two other man appeared from within the metal monster, "I said—**_howdy_**," he replied quirking a brow and waving.

"Uh--hi," replied Greg with furrowed brows.

"What are you guys doing around here?" he asked looking back.

"What everyone else is," replied Annie.

"Ah," he laughed crossing his arms, "You guys from around here?"

"We made a wrong turn at Texas," Annie replied sarcastically. The two partners cackled as they settled atop the tank. "Ah, you're funny," he replied cracking a big smile. The group stood still as stone with their guns at their sides; it was the first thing he noticed as he scanned them, "Humorless," he declared, "Figures."

"Who are you?" asked Rob.

"Same thing I was going to ask you," he replied, "Who's the group leader here?"

They instinctively looked to Greg who stepped forward, "I guess I am," he replied standing across from the man.

"Nice day out," he declared, "We were camped out down by those trees all night, and we were scoping you guys out. Man, you can keep quiet, we didn't hear a peep out of you and seven of those things passed by that hut way back there, one of them even got nosey and started hanging around the door."

"I heard," Greg replied.

"Yeah, well," he replied, "We thought we'd come over and stop being so shy, but you guys look more shy than we were… right?"

Greg nodded slowly looking at the rest of the foursome. "You guys don't talk?" he asked looking around at the group, "When we were out in Tulsa, we used to kill anyone who didn't talk. I'm serious we'd see someone approaching us, if they didn't call out to us immediately, bam! It was lights out for them. Right through the fucking head; we even killed two seven year olds, man. It was fucking weird. But—you know," he patted his sides, "It gets easier as the time passes, doesn't it?"

"What do you want?" asked Annie.

"Straight to the point, I like that," he smiled, "Uh—?"

"Annie," she replied.

"Annie," he nodded, "I like that name. My momma's name was Annie."

"Really?"

"No," he joked, "Just trying to get you to talk." Greg saw his partners' guns peak out from behind them from afar and became cautious quickly.

"Well, let's cut the bullshit," he said, "right now we're pressed for time and were wondering if you needed a ride."

"Yes," Rob replied sighing with a chuckle, "Thank you."

"Wait a minute," Greg interrupted, "Who are you guys?"

"Oh, damn," he said, "Sorry. I'm Raimi, those two bastards back there are Carver, and Neeson. They're my partners. What's yours?"

"Greg," Rob said pointing them out, "Annie, I'm Rob, and that's my sister Iris."

"Rob," Greg nodded angered at his instant giving away of their names.

"You guys alone?" Raimi asked.

"Yes," replied Greg, "We were just heading out."

"So were we," Raimi said stepping forward, giving a smile as they held their guns up by instinct, "Whoa there, ramblin' man," Raimi said friendly-like to Greg, "Who are you going to shoot with that?"

"Anyone we have to," warned Greg. Raimi furrowed his brows in shock and sighed putting his hands at his side, "Wow," he replied sighing and puffing his cheeks, "You're serious. He's serious, boys! Well, sir, we come in peace, guaranteed. You can put away the guns."

"Tell them to put theirs away, first," Greg warned.

"Fine, fine," Raimi replied, "Guys." He shrugged signaling them to lower their guns. They lowered them slowly with half smirks, "Dumb asses don't know how to hide things," Raimi declared.

"Is that yours?" asked Rob looking at the humongous tank in shock.

"Yep," he replied, "That mean motor scooter back there is mine and my boys, "The Midnight Rider"! After the Allman's…" He scoffed in delight, "The Allmans? You know 'em?" They nodded slowly.

"Please," Rob pleaded stepping forward, "Let us go with you, I don't know what we'll do without help."

"What do you want?" asked Greg.

"Depends," replied Raimi with a smile, "Whaddya got?"

"Nothing," replied Annie.

"Well," Raimi said caressing her face, "Not ** _nothing_**." Annie grimaced and smacked his hand away.

"Money," Rob blurted stepping in front of her.

"Money!" Annie said in disbelief, "Are you fucking kidding me!" Raimi and the boys began laughing out loud; Carver and Neeson fell back chuckling as Raimi walked over with a low chuckle, "Money," he declared in disbelief, as Rob held it out nervously. Annie and Iris sighed as Greg watched Raimi approach, "How much you got?" asked Raimi feigning interest.

"A-A thousand," he replied looking over at Iris who stared in disbelief, "I figured we'd need it."

"Well," Raimi said yanking the money from his hand. He grabbed it and fingered it playfully looking down at the crisp 100 dollar bills, "Nice."

"So?" asked Rob with a pleased scoff growing a smile, "What do you say?"

"What do I say," Raimi muttered fingering the bills quickly, "What do I say, boys?" Neeson and Carver laughed to each other as Annie sighed cradling her shotgun. She looked over to the back of the field nervously squirming at every noise made.

"It's all yours," Rob explained smiling confidently, "If you let us ride with you." Raimi gripped the money and ripped it to shreds as the group looked on in surprise. He tore apart every bill with a smirk, much to Rob's chagrin as he gasped whimpering watching the papers fall to the grass.

"What are you doing!" Rob yelled dropping on his knees to the ground gathering the papers.

"That's what I say," Raimi ranted, "you capitalist, money grubbing, high class, preppy, pussy," He threw the last bit of paper on him and wiped his hands as Neeson and Carver chuckled watching in the back.

"You didn't have to do that," Annie argued.

"I did," Raimi insisted, "Because sometimes it takes some tough love for some people to get a bit of a clue."

"And what's that?" Greg asked stepping forward.

"That money has no use anymore," Raimi replied stepping to him in kind, "Do you fuck heads still not understand that? The next time your boy flashes money in my face, I'm going to fuck him with it, got it?"

"Is that a threat?" Greg asked.

"It's a guarantee," replied Raimi, "Got a problem with that?" Greg stepped forward yanking him by the shirt as Neeson and Carver stepped forward drawing their guns with a loud click.

"Back the fuck off, tough guy," Neeson warned, "I wouldn't want to shoot holes in your black ass, but if you give me a reason I'll be more than happy to."

"The rest of you," Carver said drawing his shotgun, "Put your hands up, and lay your guns on the ground."

Iris hesitated, "B-But--"

"--On the ground--**_now_**!" Carver screamed. He shot at Annie's feet. The shot was too close for comfort.

"Do what he says, Iris," Annie warned dropping her rifle and shotgun on the ground. She stuck her hands up glaring at them unflinching. Iris stepped forward dropping her guns and stuck her hands up reluctantly.

"Well?" Raimi asked with a sly smile as Greg held him.

"Last time I'm going to tell you, Nigger," Neeson warned cocking his gun.

"Greg, please," Iris pleaded softly. He looked over at the girls, down at Rob who was still sitting stunned, and over at Neeson and Carver who had their guns locked and loaded, they were going to shoot. He tore his hands away from Raimi's shirt and backed off sighing angrily. Raimi held his hands out to the sides with a soft chuckle, staggered back and leapt forward punching him hard onto the ground. His body dropped onto the grass with a loud thump as Carver and Neeson chuckled. Raimi sighed clenching his fists. Greg lay on the grass groaning and held his face as Raimi stood back. Carver and Neeson cocked their guns to keep the group from becoming gutsy.

"Okay," Raimi said walking off in front of them, "Let me educate you numb skulls on something: this isn't the world we lived in, understand me? This is Genesis; this is fucking Armageddon right here in front of us. You gonna come to me with your fucking pieces of green paper thinking I'll bend over and suck you off, you got another thing coming. Everything in that world we lived in no longer matters. That fine jewelry, those nice shoes, cable, magazines, recliners, corn nuts, none of that fucking bullshit matters. Money is useless, its **_confederate_** bullshit, all of that is gone, got it? Time is gone as well. Time doesn't matter, birthdays, holidays, vacations, those don't matter. Want to know what **_really_** matters?"

Neeson tossed his shotgun to him as Raimi caught it from behind. He clutched it with both hands and held it up, "This is what matters," Raimi declared loudly, "Fire power, transportation, warm clothing, ammo, this matters now, do you fucking understand?" They slowly nodded, "Now if I wanted to, I could order my boys Neeson and Carver to blow your brains out, then we'd strip you of everything you got on your body and leave you to become feed for those things while we made a quick getaway, but I won't."

"**_Really?_**" Annie asked, "Why don't you?"

"Yeah, don't tempt me, bitch," Raimi replied.

"But—," Rob said confused, "I thought--"

"We were friends?" Raimi asked, "I'm not your friend, I'm not your buddy, got it? Out here it's every man for himself."

Neeson reached into the cockpit and pulled out a red flare gun, covered his right ear, held up the gun to the sky and shot as the flare exploded into the sky bursting into a bright red glow.

"What are you doing!" asked Greg, as the others groaned in fright.

"Now, it's going to take--," Raimi looked at his watch, "A minute before those things put their heads together and realize there's fresh meat here, so we're running thin on time. Now you can come with us and I call the shots, or we'll bulldoze our way out of here and you guys can fend for yourself and let that tough guy lead the rest of the way. What's your answer?"


	5. Midnight Rider: Chapter Four

"Who the fuck do you think you are!" Iris screamed, "You got some nerve playing with us like this."

"Shut up, Iris," replied Annie.

"You shut up!" Iris replied.

"He will kill us," Annie warned.

"Guys we should really hurry," Rob urged looking back into the woods.

"You motherfucker, you're not god," Greg replied.

"It's called self-preservation," explained Raimi, "It's what I'm doing, it's what **_they're_** doing." Neeson and Carver crawled back into the cockpit as Raimi followed jumping inside with them.

He stood out looking at them stand motionless and sighed, "What's that I hear?" Raimi joked, "The growl of hunger." A rustling emerged from the woods as Annie grabbed her guns and ran towards the tank, "Annie!" Rob said in disbelief.

"What are you doing?" asked Iris.

"I could give a shit," Annie replied, "I'm going with them."

"Smart **_and_** beautiful," Raimi boasted. Annie tossed the gun to Carver and quickly climbed onto the tank disappearing into the cockpit.

"We have no choice," Greg reasoned with them, "If we go with them we might be safer."

"But **_you're_** leading us," Rob argued.

"Not anymore," Greg replied, "We have to do what we can to survive."

"But Greg--"

"--No, Rob," Greg argued, "They can keep us safer than I can."

"I don't trust them," Iris admitted.

"I don't either," Greg replied, "But what choice do we have?" He shrugged and walked up to the top of the tank standing beside Annie and descended into the cockpit. "Well, time's up kiddies," Raimi declared, "It looks like we have some company, and they don't look happy."

Iris and Rob turned towards the trees and saw the dead emerging from the bushes slowly gathering and groaning. "Shit," Rob exclaimed.

"See you," Raimi said closing the door.

"What now?" asked Iris cowering near her brother.

"Let's go," Rob replied. The two ran through the field calling to them and banging the back, the walking dead staggering behind them growling and reaching their arms out. The tank stopped and Raimi emerged from the top with his gun and pointed it as Rob and Iris gasped in fright. He shot blasting an infected in the head onto the ground as the two sighed in relief, "Come on kids," Raimi declared. Rob and Iris mounted the tank anxiously as Raimi and Carver blasted the surrounding dead that slowly gathered around them.

"Hurry up, hurry it up," Carver urged shooting with precision. Iris tripped falling to the ground as Rob knelt down grabbing her by the hand. One of the infected fell to the ground grabbing onto Iris' legs and growling as she let out a horrified cry. "Fuck," Raimi exclaimed getting out of the cockpit. "Just leave them," Carver said. Raimi pointed and shot the corpse knocking it back as Iris cried crawling onto the back of the tank exhaustedly. Raimi slipped the gun into his holster and tore the corpse from her legs kicking it to the ground as the groups of walking dead gather very fast around their machine.

"How'd they get together so fast?" Greg asked alarmed, shooting beside Carver.

"I don't know," Carver replied annoyed, "Only two minutes and there's already a hundred coming down on us. Un-fucking-believable, Hurry it up, Raimi!" He shot around them as the walking dead finally began approaching the metal behemoth banging the wheels and growling with hunger. Neeson pressed the tank forward, looking back at Greg and Carver's legs with curiosity as shots rang out rapidly.

"What's the hold up?" asked Neeson.

"Clear a path!" Carver ordered below.

"On it!" Neeson yelled. He spun the cannon to the right towards a path that slowly became congested with the walking dead who staggered down the field and aimed, "Clear the way," Neeson muttered. He pressed the trigger and a loud blast rang out blowing apart the crowd; limbs and bones flew everywhere as the smoke cleared, "I'm free for now," Neeson declared, "Tell Raimi to get his ass in gear!" Greg and Carver instantly snapped into action shooting rapidly but with aim, spinning as they gathered from the woods with eagerness. Raimi knelt down shoving Rob back and yanked Iris by the jacket dropping her onto the top as she panted. Suddenly he was grabbed by a woman who wrapped her arms around his leg biting down, "No!" Iris yelped as Raimi grunted shoving her off onto the ground shooting her, as her brains splattered on the grass. "Get the fuck in now!" Raimi screamed shoving them up the ramp. Bud and Iris jumped in back into the cockpit as Carver ran down to the handle bars. Greg stood up above looking out onto the sea of the walking dead grabbing and growling, their pearl white eyes gazing in ferocity. "Come on," Neeson yelled.

"I'll stay up here to hold guard," Greg replied. Neeson started the engine and with a mighty roar, the tank began moving and steamrolled their way along the field crushing the dead beneath their tracks, bones cracking, eye popping, skulls crushing as the remaining groups staggered behind, reaching up hungrily. Raimi panted sitting in the back as Carver stood over him watching nervously, "It bit you," Carver declared concerned, "Maybe," Raimi replied with a pant. Annie sat across from him as Rob and Iris huddled together, "That's what you get for not pulling your weight," Raimi declared, indirectly talking to Iris as she lowered her head in shame.

"You know," Raimi said slipping off his black boot, "back in my crew, someone who didn't pull their weight were left for dead."

"I'm sorry," Iris said, "I was scared, and I lost my foot--"

"--Shut up," Carver replied as Iris meekly lowered her head, "Got a wound?"

"Hold the fuck up, please," Raimi replied rudely. He tore his sock off looking up at Annie who sat exhausted and pulled his pants leg up looking for a wound. He panted turning his leg around and with one breath sighed aloud leaning back.

"Oh for fuck sake," Carver replied relieved.

"No wound," Raimi replied, "God bless thick military issued leather." He held up the boot knocking on it and turned it gazing at the impressions from the corpse's teeth.

"The bitch bit down hard," Annie said looking at the boot.

"They can be knocked over with ease," Raimi said, "But they can bite down harder than a croc. Even a slight mark on my leg would have infected me."

"Really?" asked Annie.

"Oh yeah," Carver replied, "We've seen it. A buddy of ours got a piece of glass lodged in his elbow, the glass was soaked in the infected's blood. That piece of glass couldn't have been bigger than a button, and within three days, we had to blow his brains out."

"How is he?" asked Neeson at the controls.

"All's good," Carver replied patting Raimi on the back.

"Yeah!" Neeson yelled pounding his fist into the controls.

"Get back in front with Neeson, okay?" Raimi ordered. Carver walked to the front sitting beside him as Neeson steamrolled through the fields of the walking dead, and the remains of the victims, Greg shot around them across the field, clearing the path.

"This is different from any of the other tanks," Annie observed.

"Ever seen a tank up close?" asked Raimi.

"No."

"Ever been in one?" asked Raimi.

"No."

"Then how the fuck would you know?"

"I don't know," she replied, "Just looks different."

"It's a new kind of tank, we also altered it a bit. The back's not spacey, but it's comfortable," replied Raimi.

"Where did you get it?" asked Rob.

"From a military base outside Nevada," replied Raimi, "Got it from some unit."

"They gave it to you?" asked Annie.

"Nah," replied Raimi, "We killed them and took it, same thing either way."

"You killed people?" asked Iris in disbelief, "Why would you do that?"

"We needed to survive," Raimi replied sarcastically, "Don't act like you haven't killed someone, because if you didn't, you wouldn't be here right now... but then I could have just left you back there. That's what's called a mercy killing."

"But I didn't kill living people who didn't deserve it," argued Iris.

"Who **_did_** deserve it?" asked Raimi, "No one deserved to be killed, no one here deserved to be one of those growling things, but it happens. We killed those guys because we needed to survive, it's that simple."

"So did **_they_**," replied Iris.

"Well, those are the breaks, okay sunshine? Better them than us, and if it makes you feel any better, they gave us a head start," Raimi replied.

"What do you mean?" asked Iris.

"While we got away, those things were too distracted eating them," Raimi replied. Iris groaned in disgust and turned as Raimi smirked leaning back, "Now if you don't mind, I got a bad headache, so please, shut-the-fuck-up."

Annie scoffed in disgust and leaned back lying down on the bench with her hood over her face as Raimi closed his eyes. "These guys are crazy," Rob whispered alarmed.

"I know," replied Iris, "They're going to kill us."

"No they're not," Rob replied, "If they were he'd had let you die."

"You think if they find food, they're not going to kill us for it?" asked Iris, "I know the first chance they get, they'll kill us all."

"Then we have to keep that from happening," Rob replied, "If it comes to it, we'll kill them and Greg and Annie too."

"We can't kill them ourselves," replied Iris, "They're stronger, and Greg and Annie are on their sides now."

"Greg and Annie are only here because they have to be, like us," Rob argued, "If it comes down to it, we'll kill them, too. Don't worry."

"Hold on a fucking sec!" Carver said walking from the cockpit drawing Rob and Iris' attention as they gazed alarmed. The jig was up. "I know you," Carver replied waving his finger, "I know her."

"Who?" Raimi asked breaking from his sleep.

"That girl," Carver replied. Annie sat up and looked over annoyed as she tore off her hood, "Your little Annie, right?"

"What?" she asked.

"Little Annie! From Blackout," He waved his hand and went to the front pulling a CD from their player holding up a black CD with a skull imprint, "Right?"

"Yes," Annie replied unzipping her jacket, "That's me."

"I love your music," Carver replied sitting across from her, "I hear it whenever I'm rolling over those sons of bitches, I mean you were hardcore."

"A celebrity," Raimi declared bobbing his head unimpressed.

"I **_used_** to be," Annie replied, "I'm not one anymore, okay?"

"I loved your second album, man," Carver boasted, "Me and my lady went up to Jersey to see you guys back last year and you were just out of control."

"Thanks," Annie replied attempting to hide her annoyance.

"Carver, want to shut the fuck up?" asked Raimi.

"What? I'm just--"

"--Go back there at the controls, alright?" Raimi replied, "You can kiss her ass later." Carver sighed and looked over at her with an excited goofy grin.

"Where's the rest of them?" asked Raimi.

"Rest of who?" she asked.

"Your band."

"Dead," Annie replied, "They were my friends. I lost everyone."

"The whole world lost everyone at that time, Annie," Raimi replied, "Don't make you better than the rest."

"I never said I was better," Annie argued.

"Everyone has," Raimi replied, "Everyone, since this happened acts like their losses were worse. You know when I raided that base out in Nevada, there were some documents that claimed the military were going to cut their losses and re-locate to another country... fucking beaurocrats thought their losses were worse. Right now, it's do or die, the strongest survive, all of those people are in the past. We're ghosts... understand?"

"Who did you lose?" asked Rob.

"None of your fucking business, **_Rob_**," Raimi replied.

"You guys some sort of gang or some shit?" asked Annie.

"Some shit," replied Carver.

"Why, you wanna join?" Neeson mocked.

"Very funny," Annie replied unamused. It was clear she could hold her own, and Raimi knew that, which is why he spent a portion of the time on that tank observing her. Iris on the other hand was what he hated. He could tell she was once a socialite of some kind and, by the way she clung to her brother, wasn't much for self-reliance and survival. It was a miracle she'd lasted this long, but then she probably lasted this long for a reason.

"Is all that tough ballsy shit just an act, or real?" asked Carver with a smirk. It was clear he was taunting her.

"It was an act," Neeson argued, "come on."

"Want to find out?" asked Annie.

"Ouch," Raimi said with a sarcastic smirk, "Survival is when you really know how tough you are, that's when the people who die, rightfully die, and the people who live make it another day."

"That's poetic," Neeson joked.

"That's ridiculous is what it is," argued Annie.

"Why?"

"Surviving one day or one year, doesn't make a difference, sometimes it happens by accident," Annie said.

"We've lived this long by accident?" asked Raimi.

"No, by luck," replied Annie.

"Luck?" asked Carver, "You don't know shit about luck, you got no idea what we had to fight off to get here."

"Either way we die," Iris replied, "We're just living to survive another day."

"That's the point, Buffy," Raimi replied, "Surviving against those things, or against the world is no different."

"What made you a scholar on survival?" asked Rob.

"Experience, Rob," Raimi replied, "Plenty of experience."

"You guys used to be a gang," Annie deduced.

"What makes you say that?" asked Raimi.

"Your tattoo," Annie pointed, "My uncle had that tattoo, from the vipers... right?"

"War scar," replied Raimi, "We all got it."

"Where's the rest of you?" Rob asked with a smirk.

"Spread out, fighting, or--one of them," replied Raimi, "Before this happened we were a group of fifty, and then we were wittled down to three."

Raimi looked as if he'd been through a lot; with short graying hair, a pretty muscular physique and a weathered expression, he looked as if he could take care of himself well, but didn't want to. His thick boots and black pants along with dark green t-shirt and black vest was evidence he was taken unprepared. He still had on his studded wrist bands and tattoos and scars that scattered along his arms, the biggest being the giant viper tattoo running down his left arm. He was pretty big, but, by the way he saved Iris, very fast, and it was quite evident why he led the small band. Not to mention his guns in his holsters declared his sheer presence. "How long have you been in the vipers?" asked Annie.

"Going on six years," replied Raimi stroking his chin.

"Are you the leader?" asked Annie.

"Leader?" asked Raimi, "I don't lead, we just grouped together when the shit happened. Somehow it shifted to me when we got this tank."

"Raimi killed our original leader and took control of the group," Carver boasted, "Then we came along when he took control."

"Shit, tell her everything why don't you?" Raimi complained.

"What?" Carver shrugged, "I was just saying."

"Go up to the top with the other one and keep a look out would you?" Raimi ordered. Carver grabbed his rifle with a sigh and climbed up beside Greg. Carver was obviously very close to Raimi, always boasting about him, always talking about him, and never left his side, "Your friend?" asked Annie.

"My brother," Raimi replied, "My good for nothing, lazy ass brother. Not bright, but he can shoot, lock and load within seconds… because that's all you got out there: seconds." Carver always wore his blue bandanna on his scruffy brown hair and always had a bit of a smile beneath his thick handlebar goatee. His clothing were comprised of a stained American flag shirt, black leather pants and boots along with a watch he wore on his hairy wrist, he wasn't as intimidating as Raimi was, but he still looked like he would kill without thought. Neeson on the other hand, a Mexican with slicked back black hair, a thick mustache and toothpick in his mouth stood at the controls, focused and rolling over anything that stood in their way.

"Ever look for survivors?" asked Rob.

"What's the point?" asked Raimi, "Not like we could fit them in here anyway, it's every man for himself now."

"With this big thing, why not put it to good use?" asked Annie.

"Every man for themselves," replied Raimi, "We're not the Red Cross. They're gone, they're long gone."

"By the way," Neeson said, "How about you guys give up your guns, now?" Annie, Rob and Iris looked over towards the cockpit with confusion and they all gazed over at Raimi who sat stone-faced.

"W-What?" asked Iris.

"Your firearms," Carver replied turning to them, "Give 'em up now."

"You're kidding...right?" Annie asked.

"Nope," Raimi replied leaning back, "Do it."

"But," Annie argued, "I thought---"

"--we were cool?" asked Carver with a smile, "Listen, lady, I'm a fan, but I wouldn't trust you if you were the last girl on Earth, so give it."

"Raimi?" Iris asked.

"We don't want one of you getting ballsy when our backs are turned," Carver explained, "and god forbid, one of us would fall asleep, I wouldn't want to have to kill you."

"I'd do it," Neeson joked raising his hand.

"Take out your weapons and drop them at Carver's feet," Raimi ordered.

"I'm not doing it," Rob argued meekly.

"Rob," Iris replied nervously.

"I'm not doing it!" Rob replied, "How do I know you're not going to kill us the first chance you get?"

"You don't," Raimi replied, "But, you have to the count of three," Raimi drew his gun at Rob cocking it as Iris and Annie gasped, "Before your sister's brains get blown all over this cart, and I wouldn't want to stop to have you clean up the mess."

Iris gasped with wide-eyes staring down the barrel as Carver and Neeson watched with amusement, "You're bluffing," Rob challenged. Carver and Neeson gasped mockingly,

"Clint Eastwood, ladies and gentleman," Carver replied.

"You ever see what happens when someone gets shot in the head point blank?" asked Raimi, "It's like a geyser, and the brain fragments smell to high hell. I'm going to count to three, and then I'm going to start shooting parts of her body very slowly until I get to the top." He cocked the gun and pointed it at her knee as Iris whimpered,

"Raimi, please," Annie pleaded.

"One--" Raimi muttered clicking the hammer.


	6. Midnight Rider: Chapter Five

"Alright," Rob replied dropping his rifle at Raimi's feet. Iris sighed with teary eyes dropping her rifles at his feet.

"Now you," Carver replied pointing at Annie.

"Fine," Annie sighed dropping her rifle and shotgun at his feet.

"**_And_** your pistol," Raimi replied. Annie looked up in surprise as Raimi nodded, "I saw that, too." He waved the gun as she reached in her waist and lifted the pistol up throwing it onto the pile.

"What about the black one?" asked Neeson.

"I'll kill him," Carver said standing up.

"No!" The group yelled nervously.

"Please, don't," Iris pleaded.

"Wait, Carver," Raimi said holding his hand up, "He's a good shooter, I saw him out there." He looked up at Greg who stood at the top of the steps shooting, "Let him alone," Raimi ordered, "We can trust him."

"He'll turn on us," Carver argued.

"Leave him alone," Raimi replied sternly.

"Don't touch him," Annie warned.

"Last I checked you weren't calling the shots," Raimi replied, "You're the one's tagging along."

"Last I checked, we didn't have much of a choice," replied Iris.

"I call the shots, got it?" Raimi warned holstering his gun, "Rule number one: I tell you jump, you say how high, is that as clear as crystal?"

"Why should we even listen to you?" asked Rob.

"Because I got the gun," replied Raimi, "are we absolutely clear on rule number one?" They nodded silently as Greg shot in above fending off the walking dead that continued approaching, "Good man," Raimi muttered looking up, "We might not kill him after all."

"What's the point of this?" asked Annie, "Holding us hostage and all?"

"It's called controlling your environment," replied Raimi rationalizing, "We're not holding you hostage; we just got more fire power than you do, and we're holding you 'til we decide what use you serve."

"Where are we going?" asked Iris.

"Well," Raimi explained cocking his gun, "We're going to drive his big fucker through the city and meet up with some friends at LA, whether or not they're still alive is undecided, but we're going to look for them, then we're headed over to a base in Mississippi where we hear the rest of our military from the US has gathered and seek shelter."

"What are you going to do with us?" asked Iris.

"We haven't decided yet," replied Carver taking a drag from a cigarette.

"We might kill you and take your shit, or trade you at our meeting point for supplies, or take you along," Neeson boasted. Annie just didn't care anymore, it was clear they were very psychotic, but three of them in different ways. Neeson was eccentric, that was a given, by the way he twitched his eyes and impulsively fiddled his toothpick around his teeth, he was a time bomb that could go off at any moment, not to mention he seemed particularly focused on getting at Greg.

Then there was Carver, more of a husky biker with a big goatee, bandanna, and American flag shirt with a small pot belly and always talked to Raimi who seemed to be his sort of rock, and depended upon him a lot, which may have been his downfall. A lot of his psychotic tendencies seemed not only based on his pure joy in providing human misery but in the opinion of his brother. Raimi seemed the most dangerous of all because he was a bit unassuming; upon first appearance he was intimidating and the fact he didn't promote his personality like his friends did, made him even more of a presence.

He was cold, quiet, and silent, and hardly ever talked and when he did, Carver and Neeson listened, as did the rest of the group, he seemed to have been one of the strongest in his entire legion of the vipers, as Annie assumed, and perhaps she was right in her assumption, because he kept his hand at his sides, looking up at the dim lights that seeped in from the panel above and didn't speak until necessary, he was possibly a lethal enemy, but, she knew, as she suspected Rob and Iris did, that he would also be a great ally. Bikers, there wasn't a more nomadic group in civilization that once was, and for these three, this was just another day's work fighting off the obstacles, but dangerous obstacles at that that loomed only inches away from each and every one of them.

One thing the three bikers did have in common were their scars, and they had plenty of them to sport even with their clothes on.

"Why'd you do it?" Annie asked breaking the silence.

"Do what?" asked Raimi never leaving the light with his eyes.

"Save Iris?" she asked, "I mean you were so ready to leave us there to die, you were going to kill them, but you saved Iris and nearly got infected." Raimi lowered his head to eye to eye contact with her and shrugged, "What's your point?"

"It's weird," she replied, "Why'd you do it?"

"Because I had a sister once," he replied.

"What was her name?" asked Annie. He stood up and climbed up to Greg who stood sill as stone like a gargoyle holding his gun out at front. Annie sighed still confused as to his behavior and saw Rob and Iris asleep, huddled in the corner asleep.

"Anything out here?" asked Raimi standing beside Greg.

"Only the usual," replied Greg, "Dead bodies, dead bodies walking, rubble."

"Keep a look out for anything hanging on to us," Raimi ordered.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Greg coldly.

"We're headed through L.A. to meet up with some friends," explained Raimi.

"L.A.?" Greg asked in fright.

"Yep," Raimi replied looking around.

"That's the worst spot in the world right now," Greg warned, "When everything first started, news casters were saying to stay away from LA."

Raimi thought, "**_We're going_**, we have to get through there to meet up with our contacts."

"It's a bad idea," Greg urged, "A really bad idea."

"Well, I didn't ask, Greg," Raimi replied, "That's the plan."

"There's hundreds maybe thousands there," Greg continued attempting to change his mind, "Not even the military could take them down."

"How would you know that?" asked Raimi.

"**_I_** survived," replied Greg, "I was one of the soldiers who went to LA to storm the complexes. We went in four thousand strong, before I escaped, there were only four left."

"Well, just because the military recruited dumb fucks doesn't mean **_we're_** going down," replied Raimi, "And besides that, it's been nearly a year, things have probably settled down a bit, it doesn't mean we're going to go down like they did."

"It's a possibility there could be thousands of them still waiting," Greg warned.

"We'll survive," replied Raimi, "Besides, those things aren't what we should be worried about."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yep," replied Raimi, "We should be worried about **_them_**." They rode past the trees and fields and finally rode past a clearing where they spotted a large group of bikers and truckers who gazed at them coldly.

"Who are they?" asked Greg.

"Nomads," replied Raimi observing them, "Don't know the exact name of their crew, but one thing's for sure, they're not friends. First chance they get, they'll try to sneak up on us and kill us, all for our tank."

"They're criminals," replied Greg.

"Nope," Raimi argued, "They just know a good opportunity when they see it. It's called survival, my friend. There are no more laws, no more orders; it's open season."

Greg stood above, the cold wind brushing against his face as he gazed across to them. One of the bikers looked over to him and motioned his hand into a gun pointing at him in a threat. Surely trouble awaiting them, but Raimi barely acknowledged it.

"Should we be worried?" asked Greg.

"Yes and no," Raimi replied with a sly half smirk, "Let them do whatever they want. They can't stop and plan, anyway." He held a walkie talkie up to his face never losing sight of their unannounced entourage, "Hey, Neeson," Raimi ordered, "Keep your eye out, we got some un-welcomed guests, plus pulse."

"Got it," Neeson replied playing the speaker phone on the dash pad of the tank.

"Survivors!" Rob asked.

"Nomads," replied Neeson, "Bad people, man."

"How do you know for sure?" asked Iris.

"We tumbled with seven of 'em last week trying to get our tank back," explained Carver, "They're not friendly. They raped a girl they found in the Bronx, one by one and fed her to those things while they made their getaway."

"Why don't we just check them out?" argued Rob.

"Go ahead," replied Neeson, "Climb up, drop out, and walk the way there."

"No gun?" asked Rob.

"Hell, no," replied Carver.

"What if I get killed?" asked Rob.

"Not our problem," replied Neeson. He looked over to Annie for support but she lowered her head not saying a single word.

"Isn't that risky?" Iris asked, "Those guys standing In the middle of the road like that?"

"You're missing it," replied Neeson, "Standing out in the middle of the road… that's what makes them even **_more_** dangerous," he said with a suggestive smirk. She wasn't ready to argue with these psychos, and while they were very dangerous they were the lesser of three evils, and in that big fucking tank, they were safe... for now. "Oh shit!" Neeson yelled looking forward. They all walked forward in unison, and gazed out onto a humongous crowd of the walking dead, a barricade that was almost unending.

"They been waiting for us?" asked Carver.

"You see that!" Raimi yelled in his walkie talkie.

"How could you not?" asked Neeson, "What do we do?"

"What do you think?" Raimi whispered to Greg who looked on in shock.

"I say we press forward?" asked Greg, "Can this thing steamroll those shit heads?"

"We'll see," shrugged Raimi. He held up the walkie talkie looking out onto the walking dead who continued staggering toward the metal giant cracking their hands against the bottom foundation as the group listened in anticipation. All of them, even Raimi were frightened gazing out onto the mangled corpses, blue skin, and blank stares, the only other expression they gave being hunger.

"Jesus Christ," Annie muttered softly looking out the window, "They're everywhere."

"They're a mistake from god," Greg replied.

"Mistake?" Raimi asked, "Bullshit. Curse? Maybe."

"What's the difference?" asked Annie.

"Mistakes are random, chaotic, wreaking disorder," Raimi explained, "These things... I don't know... these things. Curses are planned, intricate, here for a purpose and one purpose: to make our lives miserable. Look at them, the walking dead. Our brains which used to be studied for decades and decades by faggoty ass scientists and philosophers are now our worst enemy. They're fueling these things, they're the only thing fueling these things, they follow the main impulses, eat and survive. Look at them, their bodies are rotting right down to the bone, they groan and moan and cry out--"

"You think they're crying?" asked Greg.

"I don't know," replied Raimi, "I don't know anything for sure. But they sound like they're in pain. Maybe it's from hunger. Maybe it's from misery, maybe from pain. But look at them really. They're arms could be lopped off, body mangled, guts pouring from everywhere, eyes and face chewed out, but look closely and you'll notice as they rot, suspiciously, their teeth and fingers remain in tact. Everything else is fading away but their teeth and their fingers, things used for tearing and biting and ripping... they're still present. They're not mistakes, they're planned. If you want my opinion, we've been damned by a higher force, or a lower force. What better weapons to eliminate the human race than humans? The human race is extinct. Long live the new species, long live natural selection."

"Clear a path you rotted pieces of shit!" Neeson howled blasting a path in between them. There was a loud whiz as the cannon blasted them, colliding into the groups and hordes of the walking dead who rushed to the tank like it was lunch time and crowded around them banging at the wheels and foundation. Neeson cackled aloud as Greg began shooting rapidly and steamrolled along the crowds as the tank hesitated along the crowds of walking dead. "Oh man," Carver muttered.

"What's going on?" asked Raimi.

"She's hesitating," Neeson said wiggling the stick.

"Well, pump it!" Carver screamed, "I'm not getting stuck out here because of you!" Neeson sighed tearing at the stick and slammed his foot down on the gas as the tank lurched forward with a groan, "Come on, come on," Raimi muttered softly, "Not now." The tank was pinned atop a group of the infected's body parts, and something was jamming the wheels, and finally the tank lurched forward and pressed on as the group cheered and hollered.

"Fucking bitch!" Neeson yelled excited.

"Thank the fucking god," Carver replied. Raimi stuck his gun out from his holster and began shooting at the infected whom chased after them stumbling to the ground with their torn clothing.

"Target practice," Raimi muttered.

"I hate it when they do that," replied Greg.

"What?" asked Raimi.

"Stare at us with that—fucking face," he replied, "It's like they know us or something."

"Yeah," he replied, "Spooks me, too."

"We're head into the city," Neeson said over the walkie talkie.

"Well, keep going," Raimi replied, "We gotta go through L.A. to get to the checkpoint. Are we there?"

"Nope," replied Carver, "We're getting there, though."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Greg said looking at the city which was literally in shambles, "How fast civilization collapsed so quickly."

"I want that fucking tank," the leader of the nomads declared, "Kill them all if you have to." The group of bikers took off from behind the bushes past the zombies who were still walking around attempting to grab at them as they sped off after the midnight rider. Meanwhile the group steamrolled through town as Raimi and Greg settled on the top of the tank looking at all the abandoned building and walking dead. "What time is it?" asked Greg.

"About five o'clock," Raimi replied crossing his hands.

"Everything looks in tact," Greg replied, "All the buildings, it's weird."

"Nah," Raimi replied, "When the last human dies, it will be theirs to live in. They're in tact for a reason. We're probably the last humans on Earth right now, just riding around and doing nothing."

"Not like we can sit in a condo and watch TV," argued Greg.

"We could," Raimi suggested, "But it'd be really tough."

"You ever picked anyone besides us up in this thing?" asked Greg.

"Couple of times," replied Raimi, "Mostly just women."

"What happened to them?" asked Greg.

"You're pretty nosey, you know that?" Raimi declared, furrowing his brows, "Is this what you military dicks do, size people up to get a feel of them?"

"You love hearing yourself talk," Greg argued sternly, "I was just asking you a question."

"Fine," Raimi replied, "When we were done with them we put them out to pastor. Okay?" Raimi scoffed in amusement nodding his head and looked around as Greg cringed in disgust. Hard to believe to him that anyone could be so cruel, but with these guys anything was possible.

"Is that what you're going to do with us when the time comes?" asked Greg.

"Whoo," Raimi replied blowing in his hands, "Winter is coming. Gettin' chilly." He blew in his hands again and went below as Greg awaited a response. He didn't give him one, and that was pretty much all the answer he needed.

"Hey, Raimi?" Greg said looking over his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Before this is all over… you and I are going to have a go 'round. Got it?" Raimi nodded with a half smirk, "I'll be waiting." 


	7. Midnight Rider: Chapter Six

He stepped down in to the tank below and sat beside Annie leaning his head back as she sat asleep. It was the first good sleep she'd had in a long while, and finally she felt secure. Though she was unsure how safe she was amidst the three despite the fact they outnumbered them. It was getting colder, and with the winter meant harsher living conditions, and it also meant the infected would become even slower amidst the snow and sleet, and harsh cold. Annie and the others prayed for a harsh winter, but they had yet to see what effect weather had on the monsters outside.

There was an awkward and somewhat forced silence in the cabin of the tank as Rob and Iris finally separated. Rob sat on the other end of the cabin still awake looking down and thinking as Iris lay in the corner curled in to a ball asleep. He could see Annie who sat close to the cockpit fast asleep. It was actually nice that they weren't walking and running for once so now they could catch up on their sleep, but Rob just couldn't keep his eyes off their fire arms which were now in a bag by the cockpit next to Carver and Neeson but he didn't have the guts to make a grab for them. Carver took a big bottle of Listerine next to him, unscrewed the cap and took a large chug, gargled for a second and spit it into a small bucket beside them, then continued as Neeson groaned in disgust keeping his eyes on the road, "God, you know that's fucking disgusting?" Neeson asked chewing on a toothpick, "Eyes on the road, dickhead," Carver replied with a Listerine drenched mustached grin.

Annie opened her eyes and looked over at Carver who'd finally stopped rinsing and put the bottle down beside him, "What's that?" she asked.

"Listerine," replied Carver.

"Why do you have Listerine?" asked Annie.

"No brushes, no toothpaste, no water," he explained, "So I wash my mouth out every day."

"Four times a day," Neeson re-iterated holding his toothpick.

"Can I borrow some?" she asked sitting straight with an exhausted groan. Carver thought for a second, "Yeah, sure," he replied tossing it to her. There were still distant bonks being heard in the distance as the tank smashed in to the walking dead who'd found themselves unfortunate enough to walk head on in to the beast.

"I haven't brushed my teeth in weeks," Annie explained twisting the cap.

"Interesting," Neeson replied sarcastically, scoffing. Annie took off the cap and slowly took a big gulp of the mouthwash gargling with clenched eyes and spit it out in to the bucket and continued. "Fuck that burns," she replied wiping her mouth.

"Packs a kick," Carver replied.

"Raimi is your older brother?" Annie asked.

"Yep," Carver replied, "Two years older."

"You don't look alike," Annie declared.

"No shit," Carver replied, "We're half brothers, but we look out for each other still. Damn, he took bullets for me a lot of times."

"I used to have a brother," she replied sadly, "He died when this all happened. At least, I'm sure he's dead."

"He's dead," Neeson replied, "I can guarantee it."

"Damn," Carver muttered, "A celebrity. You were bad-ass back in the day."

"Oh god," Neeson groaned annoyed.

"What?" asked Carver.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Neeson replied, "Why don't you just suck her titties while you're at it?"

"Fuck you, spick," Carver replied.

"Back at you, ya mick," Neeson replied throwing his toothpick at him.

"You don't talk much," Neeson declared looking over at Rob.

"What?" Rob blurted.

"You," Neeson replied, "What's your deal?"

"I don't have a deal," Rob replied.

"Everyone has a story," Neeson argued, "I'm bored. Tell me how you got here."

"No thanks."

"Ah, fuck it," Neeson replied, "Try to be nice and I get tongue tied bullshit from a pole sucker. _Carajo_!"

"What's the matter?" Annie whispered to Rob. Rob looked up at her and nodded slowly. She caught what he was glimpsing at and sighed, "Don't," Annie whispered trying not to move her lips, "They will kill you."

"It's worth a try," Rob whispered.

"Yeah, and it's worth getting your balls blown off and being thrown out there," Annie advised. They steamrolled through the town where the houses still basically smoked and smoked, and streets crumbled from the thrown over cars and walking dead which scattered along the street in unison.

"Damn, that stinks, eh?" Carver asked.

"What?" asked Neeson.

"That fucking air of death," Carver replied.

"That's just your mouthwash," joked Neeson.

"Ooh," Raimi muttered looking ahead in the distance, "There's still some heartbeats."

"What?" asked Greg.

"Survivors," replied Raimi, "In the distance there."

"How many?"

"Four people on top of a house," Raimi explained, "They're fucked. And one guy on a convenience store roof."

"Why can't we save them?" asked Greg.

"No," Raimi replied, "Their problems are not mine." As they crossed them the people waved their arms frantically, coming eye to eye with Raimi as he flashed his middle finger with a giant "fuck you" expression that instantly brought their arms down and expression of doom on their faces.

They finally turned the corner as night finally fell after what seemed like a very long and tedious day, and they stopped in front of a house. "Back it up!" Raimi ordered from atop the tank. They reeled back in the tank and parked in front of the house blocking the front door as Raimi looked up and around at the scenery in front of them. "This should be good," Raimi declared.

"Why are we stopping here?" asked Greg.

"Were you riding with us two weeks ago?" Raimi asked confused.

"No," Greg answered confused.

"Then shut the fuck up," Raimi replied. Greg sighed leaning against the port hole on top of the tank as Raimi climbed up on top of the tank stretching his legs and began pissing.

"Why did we stop?" asked Annie.

"Shut up," Neeson muttered getting out from behind the seat.

"Why did we stop?" Iris asked breaking from her sleep.

"I don't know," Rob replied, "Maybe we ran out of gas or something." Iris stood up stretching and groaning as Annie began climbing up to the top. She stopped at the top step looking up at Greg who sat listening to the guys talk.

"Why'd we stop?" asked Annie.

"I don't know," replied Greg, "Raimi didn't tell me."

"They're going to kill us the first chance they get," Annie declared.

"I know," Greg replied, "But they'll have to take me down first."

"She's with them, now," Iris explained still half asleep, "I heard her talking to them. She doesn't like us, she'll betray us the first chance she gets."

"She won't," replied Rob looking up, "We just have to stick together… like we did when mom and dad came after us. Remember when we were stuck in that closet and mom was looking for us and we waited two whole hours?"

"I remember," Iris replied saddened.

"They'll have to kill me before they get to you," Rob promised, "Okay?"

"Okay," she replied with a faint smile hugging him.

"Why did we stop?" Annie asked more sternly.

"We're camping out here for the night," Carver replied.

"In that house?" asked Greg.

"Yep," Neeson replied chewing on his toothpick, "We're staying over. I doubt the owners will mind much if we do."

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" asked Greg.

"I don't remember asking you, spook," Neeson replied.

"Fuck you," Annie replied.

"Soon," Neeson replied.

"Tell your boy something," Greg threatened to Raimi, "One more crack at me and I'm taking him down."

"Be my guest," Raimi replied sarcastically, "But he's pretty damn good with the knife last I checked, and you take one swipe at my boys, I'll break your fucking neck…" He turned and looked over to them without a word and a look of expectancy, "Are we clear?"

"Crystal," Annie replied angered.

"Excellent," Raimi replied, "I don't give a fuck about you people. I only give a shit about me and them. That's it. You do what you want. You sick of us? Well, climb out there and start walking. Go ahead."

He walked over to them and began climbing in. "They still have our guns," Rob said with a whisper, "They're over there."

"Don't," Iris warned, "I'm scared of them. Especially Raimi. He'll hurt you if you try to grab it."

"I'll just sneak a pistol with me just in case," Rob explained, "They won't even notice it's missing."

"Don't," Iris warned nervously. Rob panted nervously and walked over to the corner reaching into the bag as Raimi dropped from the ladder beside him and yanked him from the floor dropping him back as Rob yelped scurrying back on the floor.

"Nice try," Raimi replied.

"I-I was just--"

"—You were about to grab our property!" Raimi replied, "You pussy motherfucker." He rushed over to him and began kicking him as Rob tried to fight back. Iris screamed jumping on his back as Raimi threw her off knocking her on top of Rob. He drew his gun at them pointing at Rob, "You are fucking lucky I don't shoot you, kid," Raimi declared as Annie watched in surprise, "You are getting on my last nerve. You ever try that again and I'll cut your balls off and leave out there, got it!"

"Fine," Rob muttered holding his cheek panting.

"Get the fuck up," Raimi declared. He turned to Annie looking at her and drew his gun to the side of her head as she flinched gritting her teeth in fright, "Keep an eye on him," Raimi advised, "Any little slip-up and I'm killing you first… got it?" Annie nodded feeling the cold steel pressed against her head. He withdrew his gun and holstered it as he climbed up to the top. "I fucking told you," Annie muttered angrily, "I told you not to grab those."

"Yeah, we know," Iris replied, "You don't want your friends to be mad."

"What are you talking about, now?" asked Annie.

"Don't act like you're scared of them," Rob argued, "Not now. We heard you talking to them like you're pals."

"Is there a point you're heading towards?" asked Annie.

"Teaming with those assholes up there," Iris replied, "Don't play stupid. You're going to betray us, aren't you?" Iris asked stepping to Annie's face, "You and those life's up there?"

"I was trying to get on their good sides," she explained, "Like you should be doing. So I won't get killed, or worse bitch slapped like you. Now, get out of my face," she warned.

"You're just like them," Rob replied.

"I'm nothing like them," Annie argued.

"Don't come near me," Iris warned, "I don't trust you."

"I won't shed a tear," Annie declared, "Now get out of my face before I kick your ass all over this place."

"Alright," Carver announced looking down from above, "You had your little talk, now get your asses in gear. Get the crates and bring them up here, now." They huffed angrily and went to their opposite corners looking around for the crates.

"Place looks dark," Neeson said as they stood in front of the house atop the tank.

"Wow, Neeson!" Carver boasted, "What a newsflash."

"Fuck you bitch," Neeson replied as Carver laughed.

"What's the hold up?" Raimi asked looking down in the cockpit.

"These are really heavy," Annie complained.

"How are we going to carry these up a ladder?" asked Rob.

"These are all your problems, not mine," Raimi replied.

"We have our own," Greg replied.

"What?" Carver asked confused.

"Take a look," Greg said pointing ahead as a group of the walking dead emerged from a corner looking out on to the meals atop the tank. "Who ever shoots the most of these fuckers gets that last bottle of beer, whaddya say?" Neeson challenged.

"Oh yeah!" Carver replied clapping, "I'm up for it."

"Alright," Raimi replied standing up, "Let's go." They lined up beside one another as the group slowly crept up to them groaning and moaning with their mangled faces and rotted bodies. They quickly began locking and loading with only the moans of the walking dead and the loud clicks of their guns being heard. Greg sat above port and watched as they aimed together and waited. "Alright," Raimi said closing one eye, "On the count of three…" Raimi counted fast, "One-two-three!" Like a roar of thunder, rapid shots rang out as they shot furiously tapping the dead's heads knocking them back. The group was bigger than they'd thought and they groaned staggering to them hungrily as they continued shooting quickly.

They popped their magazine clips and locked and loaded as they quickly began shooting again. "Ten points if you shoot the kid," Carver declared as a small boy staggered up slowly to them with his eyes glazed over. Raimi turned and shot once knocking the child back and commenced his shooting as the groups stopped and the bodies piled up. They lowered their guns, "Whoo!" Neeson laughed aloud, "Now that was a fucking rush!"

"Four for me," Neeson said.

"Ten," Carver replied.

"Ten here," Raimi replied, "Plus ten points, so that means that beer is mine!"

"No fucking way!" Neeson argued as Raimi walked past him, "You shot that little fuck before anyone else could."

"That's the point idiot," Carver replied patting his shoulder.

"No, we never said anything about points!" Neeson explained, "It's not fair!"

"It's a tie between me and my brother," Raimi explained, "You lost anyway, you're arguing for nothing, so quit embarrassing yourself and shut the fuck up."

"Whatever," Neeson huffed walking off and walked past Greg who sat watching, "What are you looking at?" Neeson asked angrily. Greg shrugged slyly with a half smile as Raimi chuckled holstering his gun.

Annie emerged from the bottom and dropped the crate down beside Greg with a heavy pant and took her hair from her face. "Fuck," Annie exclaimed.

"About damn time," Carver replied, "Took you long enough."

"These things are not exactly light," Annie argued, "And we're doing it alone."

"That's right," Raimi replied.

"You're the new grunts for us," Carver boasted, "You do all the shit we don't want to." Annie sighed leaning against the ladder as they cackled. "Alright," Raimi began, "We have the supplies now; we are all going to sleep it off here tonight in that house on the second floor. First we have to clear the second floor of anything lurking around there."

There was a brief silence as Greg looked up as Carver and Raimi looked down at him expectedly, "What the fuck are you looking at me for?" asked Greg.

"Well, go ahead," Raimi replied, "Check it out."

"You want him to do it?" Annie argued.

"Shit, **_I_** ain't doing it," replied Carver, "So you'll do it."

"You guys are fucked up," Annie protested, "He could get killed."

"We've explored that possibility," Raimi replied, "Now get the fuck up." Iris and Rob climbed up out from the bottom and stood beside Annie as Greg forced himself up sighing attempting to keep a confident swagger as to show them he wasn't phased.

"**_I'm_** going," Annie declared standing in front of Greg.

"Don't worry," Greg assured her moving her aside, "I'll do it."

"You can't make him do that," Iris protested.

"When I got the guns, I sure can," Raimi replied. Greg took off his coat and looked up in to the window where they'd be staying and stood at the edge of the tank looking up and attempting to plan what move he was going to make. Raimi walked over to the crate pulling out the last beer and sat down taking a gulp as Greg thought for a few minutes. "Can't you at least give him a weapon?" asked Rob.

"No," Carver replied, "He's fine."

Greg looked back at the three, "I'll be back," he assured them as they nodded silently. Greg stood on the edge and jumped off quickly hopping on to the side of the house and began climbing up the side of the vined gates that led up to the top window. The group watched Greg climb up quickly and walked up the small roof to the top. He etched his way to the window over looking over at the small suburbs and look inside sneaking to the front. "That was fast," Neeson declared.

"He's good," Carver replied.

"He's going to get himself killed," Iris complained.

"If we're lucky," Neeson joked.


	8. Midnight Rider: Chapter Seven

The three watched in horror and suspense as Greg climbed the side of the house quickly and then looked in the window in to the darkness of the room. Annie walked over to the top of the tank and sat down at the edge of the door. Somehow, suddenly she began to remember once again, she couldn't help it. Everything just seemed to come back to her in a flash. She rushed across the street holding her arm panting and yelping softly as sweat dripped down her face and stopped in the middle of the street desperately looking for an exit, but there were none. She now found herself in the middle of the industrial district, all sorts of tubes and machinery scattered around her as quiet seemed to engross the entire area. She whimpered and ran as the soft growling emerged in the distance from behind her and ran into a large tube sliding in to it. It was a desperate move for her, but with her head wound and injured arm from the crash, she couldn't exactly think straight.

She squirmed desperately in the tube and tried her hardest to muffle her whimpers as there was a sudden silence, and then as the silence faded, the crunching of gravel could be heard. Outside the gravel crunching was as soft as a pin dropping, but inside the tube she could hear it echoing, and the closer it got the more she began to whimper. There was a sudden sharp growl as a hand reached into the tube grabbing her legs as she let out a horrifying cry and fought off the creatures that grabbed at her legs and began kicking as she fought to escape from the tube scratching the metal and screamed as they pulled her slowly from the tube. She felt their teeth gnawing on the bottom of her boot as she let out a loud cry and finally broke free from their grips crawling out and dropped on to the ground as she began crawling along the dirt.

She stumbled on to her feet slipping on the ground, and began running as she banged into a brick wall crying and looked around as three of them surrounded her. "Get away from me!" she howled frantically, "Somebody help me! Please!" she let out a soft whimper looking for a way to escape as she saw what were once her best friends, now only mindless walking dead hungry for flesh. Ethan staggered to her with his bloody mouth gaped wide open as she whimpered incoherently. "Ethan, please," she pleaded hoping to reach some part of him, but all he did was walk to her with his mouth open as Denny walked beside him, his face chewed revealing his cheek bone as he groaned aloud.

"No," she muttered, "Denny, no." They slowly surrounded her, no opening for escape, and she was too dizzy to take another step, all she could do was cry and scream hoping for someone to find her. She let out another frantic scream holding her wounded arm preparing for their inevitable lunging. In the distance there was a deafening honk of a horn as she looked ahead and a van came barreling down on her slamming into the two walking dead crushing them beneath its wheels. She gasped as Greg appeared from out of the jeep, threw the door open and rushed out with a rifle in tow, his face and body covered in blood as he stood still for a moment and squinted.

"Were you bit?" he asked alarmed.

"What?" she asked with a whimper.

"Were you bitten!" he screamed.

"No," she replied, "I got into an accident, my friends—look out!" Denny stumbled from behind Greg and jumped on his back growling as Greg tore his head away from his mouth and flipped on to the ground. He took his rifle and smashed it into his skull as Denny let out a faint growl. He repeatedly smashed the rifle in to his head as all that were left were loud squishes that echoed in the night as Annie looked on in horror. He stopped and stood back panting heavily, "My friends," Annie mumbled as she whimpered incoherently, "Get in the car," Greg ordered.

"They need my help," Annie pleaded, "Ethan is sick."

"Your friends are dead, kid!" Greg screamed, "Get in the car now!" She rushed to the car holding her arm and slid into the passengers' seat as Greg jumped into the front seat and started up the car as the dead began gathering around them.

Greg tore at the gear shift and plowed through them as Annie lay in the back seat cowering and whimpering. "What happened?" Annie asked softly, "What happened to my friends…?"

"Same thing that's happening to everyone," Greg replied, "They're coming back from the dead."

"They were… walking," she insisted.

"Your friends are dead, kid. All of them. Consider yourself lucky you weren't killed, too," Greg explained.

"I was just talking to them," Annie mumbled, "We were, we were joking--"

"No," Greg declared, "Everyone is dead." She sat up looking around at the night as they were spreading across the neighborhoods. They walked the streets in rows staggering as Greg swerved plowing them down. She flinched as the thunderous thumps of their bodies smashing in to the cars could be heard.

"We'll get somewhere safe," Greg, "**_If_** we find somewhere safe."

"My arm," Annie whimpered looking down at it, "My arm."

"Just lay back," he explained slamming in to them, "Lay back. Motherfucking rifle doesn't even have bullets, anymore." He threw it in to the corner.

"You're all bloody," Annie said whimpering, clearly not in the right state of mind.

"Yeah," Greg replied with a scoff furrowing his brows, "Barely made it out alive. Now lay back and cover your eyes." He continued plowing the daring ones down mercilessly and skidded down the streets past them.

"Nothing yet," Raimi declared as they all watched by the window. Annie sighed and stepped forward walking past them as they looked on confused.

"Where the fuck you going?" Neeson asked.

"I'm going to help him," Annie replied jumping on the ground and quickly climbing up.

"Annie you'll get killed," Iris warned.

"No shit," Annie replied, "I'm not letting him get hurt. He's all by himself with no weapons. They're going to ambush him. I gotta help him."

"You're making a stupid move, girlie," Carver warned.

"Then shoot me," Annie replied, "If not then shut up and wait until we give you the signal."

Carver shrugged as they all dismissed her, "You heard her," he replied sarcastically. "Damn, she's fine. Gonna have to teach her some manners when we're alone," Neeson declared with a sly smirk. "Leave her alone," Iris replied. Annie crawled up the side of the house and stood atop the roof and slowly etched her way across the shingles finally stepping in front of the window. She looked inside and saw Greg standing in the shadows, "Hey," she whispered as Greg turned furrowing his brows.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came to help," she replied.

"Go back down," Greg ordered.

"No," she argued.

"Go back down," Greg replied grabbing her arm, "Now."

"No," She replied tearing her arm away.

"Look, there's no need for the both of us getting killed," Greg insisted.

"No way, man," Annie replied already crawling in to the room, "I'm watching your back this time, and what if there's a group of them behind that door, you'll die. Face it, you need me." She forced a smile wiping herself off. Greg stood stone-faced for a second and couldn't help laughing. She had balls, more than he gave her credit for. It was really something to admire.

"Fine," Greg replied patting her shoulder, "Stay behind me and do everything I say." She shrugged, "As usual," she joked.

"I'm looking for something to use in case one of them comes out," Greg explained, "Stupid mother fuckers."

"What's in there?" asked Annie pointing to a door near the window.

"A closet," he replied, "I checked in there. There's nothing."

"Any of them out there?" asked Annie.

"I don't know," Greg explained, "Been too busy looking for a weapon."

"We're fucked if we can't find anything," Annie declared.

"I know," replied Greg, "I'm not sure if there are two or twenty of them out there, and if I'm lucky, there's no one inside."

"Only one way to find out," Annie replied.

"Fine," Greg replied with a loud huff, "If we have to go in with bare hands, then let's do this, already." Greg and Annie slowly walked over by the door; Annie quickly lay down on the floor looking under the bed which was strewn about, obviously by the previous owners in a panic and finally found a bat underneath the frame.

"Yes! Looked everywhere, huh?" She replied handling it, "Here."

"You take it," Greg replied.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me," Greg assured her, "I can handle myself." She didn't bother to argue, she knew he could handle himself.

Back when everything started, and he saved her, he managed to fight off five of those things without getting bitten or scratched, and made it out just fine. Much like the person he was, he soon became protective of Annie since she was basically the only person he was able to protect since the shit went down. Back when Greg was out with his troop, during the outbreak, he went in two-hundred strong armed with mere smoke guns and shields, but right off the back as Greg and his partners rushed off the truck and lined up in their usual barrage lining up in rows armed with their shields, he instantly saw this was no riot. They were spread out in to groups, reaching out in hunger as they caught sight of the soldiers greeting them, and they didn't look human. Some crawled along the floor, others had their faces torn, their necks ripped from the veins, and others were walking without any limbs, and then the clashing began and very quickly the armed soldiers' strength was diminished in only twenty minutes.

As he remembered fighting them off, they were very quickly outnumbered one-hundred to one, and many of his friends he watched get torn up, eaten alive, and others get dragged into the gutters screaming. Many of them would get back up and attack**_ their_** friends. He could still feel their bodies crashing up on to him, their hands grabbing at his uniform, their growls, and their almost unbearable breath which brought the stench of rotted meat and death along with it. Soon, after the armed forced were shrunken to about only a hand full of men, there was the missiles which soon began bombing down from the skies on to the hordes of walking dead. No corner, no alley, no gutter and no building were safe from their carnage which raged upon the living like swarms of hellish locusts. They were everywhere, and foot room became scarce as he began walking long the bodies on the ground.

As the strength and forces whittled down, the soldiers soon began running for their lives, clearly noticing these things weren't human and now **_they_** were the hunters. Groups of the soldiers rushed to their armored cars and attempted to speed off, but it was already too late. Many of the cars were covered by them, others had already been broken in to and were being feasted on within the trucks, and the others had crashed into poles and corners overturning being left for dead. It was as if the man-made devices of his civilization had now become insurmountable obstacles. No god could save them. Greg caught the first visible jeep and made a run for it, his body covered in the blood of the dead and his friends. And he high-tailed it out of the city limits. Helicopters could be heard swarming over head as people took to fire escapes and roofs to shelter themselves.

There was clear chaos within the buildings as groups of the walking dead raided the apartment complexes and screams could be heard, screams of children, cries of newborn babies, and women screaming in pure horror. They never had a chance, and people swarmed the fire escapes, some with children in their arms, others were pushed off and fell to their deaths as the helicopters fluttered above. Reporters were still covering the chaos from high points even after people were being massacred. They were without conscience, without guilt, without mercy, and the defcon blared throughout the sky as all law, order, and sense were diminished within the ashes of the black fires that raged from rooftops and skyscrapers, even all of Greg's family. He was never able to make a call or gain any sense of satisfaction or closure, but he didn't kid himself, they were all dead. Everyone he'd loved, been in love with, all of his friends and companions. Dead.

Annie went three weeks with the sling on her arm and it never really did fully heal itself, but she had managed to make due with the little resources they had, and she could still use her arm very well for what had happened, but Greg saw her as a partner in crime, the spirit of his friends he's lost. Both spent an immense amount of time running and walking, and fighting them off barely surviving by the skin of their teeth, and she didn't bother arguing with Greg. He could handle himself with or without a weapon at his disposal, but unlike him, she actually needed a weapon being much smaller than he was.

"Are you ready?" asked Greg.

"I'm ready as ever," Annie replied uncertain.

She held a stance for a few minutes and gripped the bat with both hands raising it up half mass nodding at him uncertain. He put his hand on the silver doorknob and held it tight and slowly twisted the knob with a light creak and swung the door open as they stood behind the door. There was silence for a moment as they waited and there it was; the dragging feet that made a soft thump along the floor as it slowly made its way through the doorway. Greg played it smart opening the door without a sight because it drew their curiosity and caused them to wander in to the room, and wander they did. She was an older woman, ragged white hair, still dressed in her nightgown, and her skin properly rotted. She still wore her slippers, her pink nightgown hanging from her roundish body, and her eyes whitened like eggs.

Her teeth were rigid and jagged, and her nails green and yellow. On her neck was a jagged scar presumably from where she was bit. It was funny, they always went for the neck first. Maybe it was because there was more meat, more blood, the most tender, or maybe to them it was all of the above, but you took a good bite at the neck, and it gushed like a geyser. And there she was, her nails coming up first and her arms reaching out from behind the door as she let out a soft groan. Her smell was rank, like piss, and the proper smell of a rotted corpse. Almost unbearable. And down like a light she went as Annie swung from behind the door knocking her onto the floor by surprise. "Wait, what the fuck--!" Greg could barely finish his declaration of shock as she ran out from behind the door and whacked her again with the bat with a loud thump.

The old woman slammed on to the floor as Annie grunted thwacking her again and again on the skull as she panted heavily. With one final thump, she was down for the count as Greg rushed out from behind the door, but before he could, the door behind her opened and out from it rushed a young man growling and jumped on her back taking bites at her head as she tore her body with a scream. Greg yanked him by his shirt and threw him against the wall. Annie turned yelping as the young man struggled to stand up growling ferociously as Greg stood back. He regained his footing and went at him yet again growling. Greg struggled for a moment as he turned grabbing him by the shirt and bashed his head against the wall with a loud crash. Excess blood from his head squirted against the wall as he repeatedly slammed his head against the wall and with a loud crack his neck snapped.

Greg released him and stood back as he dropped to the ground with a loud crash no longer moving. Greg huffed and turned slapping her across the face as she staggered back yelping, "What the fuck was that!" He asked angrily.

"I'm sorry," she replied holding her mouth.

"You call that standing behind me!" He argued.

"I'm sorry," she replied, "I panicked."

"Panicked?" he asked, "You almost got yourself killed."

"I'm sorry," she repeated, "I'm sorry."

"Wise up! You're getting sloppy, you get sloppy and crazy, you get killed, got it!" he ordered. "Alright!" she argued, "I said sorry, what more do you want?"

"You don't get it," Greg replied nodding annoyed, "You don't get it."

Annie sighed spitting the blood from her mouth and looked around at the dark hallway as Greg sighed looking down at the corpse that was once a young man. "Damn," Greg whispered. Annie turned looking over at a corpse on the floor and gasped standing back bumping into Greg who stood behind her, "Relax," Greg replied, "She's long dead."

"Fuck," Annie said with a sigh, "The smell--!" She turned to the wall and began to vomit all over the floor with a loud splash and a loud grunt as Greg stood still looking down at the body. She couldn't have been older than fifteen. She was thin, probably not much of a meal judging by her weight, but the two seemed to have made plenty for her. Her face was eaten down to the bone, her eyes bulging from its skull, her arms and legs partially eaten down to the wrist, and dry blood everywhere. Her feet were bare, or what were left of them. Her feet were even chewed down, and her brown hair, traces of it, or what was left of it were wildly strung around drenched in blood.

Annie panted wiping her mouth with a disgusted groan and could barely look over at the body, "Fucking Christ," she blurted loudly.

"You think you see everything," Greg declared, "And if you don't want to be like her, you better watch your step, do you understand?"

"Yeah," she replied in disbelief, "I got carried away. I panicked."

"I know," Greg assured her, "Just be careful, for the love of god."

"Oh god," she said covering her nose in disgust, "I can't take that smell."

"Hmm," Greg said observing the pictures hanging in the hallway, pictures of the three that were there. A mother, her son, and his daughter, all three with smiling happy faces. "What a shame," Greg declared.


	9. Midnight Rider: Chapter Eight

"Is this place clear or what?" Annie asked cringing and retching softly.

"No," Greg replied, "We still have two more rooms."

"Fine," Annie replied, "Can we just finish this?"

"Let's go," Greg said patting his sides.

"First chance I get," Annie explained tapping her bat in her hand, "I'm killing that motherfucker, Raimi. Better yet, I'm going to leave him to be eaten by those shit heads, just watch."

"Eyes open, ears listening, and **_stay behind me_**," Greg declared sternly making a point to confirm his last statement to her clearly.

"Fine," Annie replied. In the distance, about seven blocks down, the squad had arrived unnoticed, unseen, stealth-like from the gang down the way in the midnight rider. And they were making their way into a convenience store. They had left their bikes behind about three blocks back and made their way on foot. And as per the warning, there they were in plain view walking through the streets knocking them on their asses and approached the convenience store.

"Finally," the leader declared, "Food."

"Yes sir," a woman with purple shoulder-length hair replied, "There she be."

"Clear it out," the leader muttered. There was a whistle above that caught their attention. They looked up as an older Hispanic man, quite possibly the owner looked down waving hands with a smile, "Up here!" he announced happily, "Please help me!"

"We'll go up now!" the woman replied flashing a smile and a thumb's up.

"You know what to do," the leader replied.

"Yeah, yeah," she replied climbing up the building.

"Any time," the leader replied walking to his men as they rushed into the store smashing the glass and crawling inside. Raimi heard the glass smash in the distance and it drew his attention. He looked back with his arms at his sides and walked to the end of the tank looking back.

"What's up?" asked Carver.

"Noise," Raimi replied.

"So what?" asked Neeson, "Probably those dead heads."

"No, they're heartbeats," Raimi declared, "Lots of them." The groups of bikers walked into the dark store and were quickly met by a small group of the dead heads whom lurched at them. One of them laughed as a chubby woman growled biting at him and he shoved her back knocking her into the counter and snapped her neck like a twig.

The purple haired woman was named Lena. She was the leader's girlfriend. You can guess what her favorite color was. Pink heavy eyeliner, purple lipstick, and she was dressed like a bad eighties singer with leather and studded bracelets, heavy black boots. The leader, Pike, a big motherfucking bulking fella with tattoos all over his arms, blonde long hair, and a heavy blond beard stood back watching his army go to work as they played around with the corpses inside the store pushing and shoving them. Others were clearing the shelves of the food that hadn't already rotted. Lena climbed up on the wall pretty quickly, and it was her specialty. She panted making her way up on the roof and swung her leg around dropped onto the tar.

"Oh thank god!" the Hispanic man said jumping on her, "I've been here for two weeks. You're the first people I've seen in two days."

"Days?" Lena asked standing back, "There are others?"

"A small group of people," the Hispanic man said pointing ahead, "They turned the corner in this humongous tank two hours ago, it was amazing. One of them ignored me and then they just disappeared." He sighed with a chuckle, "I couldn't help crying that they'd left me behind," he explained, "My wife and brothers are down there, but they turned and tried to kill me."

"Did they?" Lena asked looking down.

"This is madness," he declared, "but you're here to save me right? I can go with you? Please?" His eyes shook with desperation and hope as she squinted. She looked around at the roof. There were blankets spread around, and a large cooler on the corner stuffed with food.

"Wow," Lena observed jokingly, "You made a home, here."

"Yes," he chuckled, "I have drinks. We can all share with each other! They're not really cold, but still, it's good."

"¿Hay otros con usted?" she asked, "¿Vida?"

He turned with a pleasant smile and handed her a soda, "No," he replied, "Apenas yo, desafortunadamente. Van a mi familia entera." She sighed and crossed her arms, "Do you want to be with them?" she asked with a smirk, "In—heaven?" His smile quickly faded as he furrowed his brows. A look of horror grew on his face, "Please," he said with a quiver, "I just want to live. Don't kill me. Please?"

"I'm not going to kill you," she assured him with a condescending loud voice, "It was just a question, relax. Can I have another soda for my man?"

"Sure," he replied turning and kneeling down. She tore a knife from her belt and yanked him by the hair quickly slashing his throat as he grunted. She was so fast he wasn't able to fight back, but how could he since there was so many? Blood splashed from his throat as she stood back wiping her knife off. He crawled on the floor holding his throat and slowly slumped down on to the ground. She sighed satisfied and grabbed the cooler from the canvas. "We got beer up here!" she declared looking down at Pike. Pike looked up giving a thumb's up to her as she dropped the cooler down onto the ground in front of him. He opened the cooler which was filled with beer and soda. The door from the roof popped open as the group of men scattered on to the roof.

Lena sat down on the warm tar roof and gulped the beer as they whooted making themselves at home. "Damn," a biker observed looking down, "Have you ever heard of a clean kill?"

"It's not fun that way," she explained, "Dump the spick's body, please. The blood is taking my thirst away." They grabbed the poor man's body and swung it over the roof dropping it down in to the alleyway with a loud crash. The biker look down with a laugh, "And there they go for the body!" He declared, "Damn, they're merciless fuckers." A thin black man, dressed in a blue jacket and black t-shirt and jeans walked over to the edge and whistled down at him waving him up.

Pike quickly walked through the aisles grabbing bags of chips and jumped up to the tables that led to the roof and climbed up as two of his soldiers made quick work of the two corpse blowing their heads off and shooting the woman. "You think a spick's blood is brown like their skin?" asked a biker laughing aloud. Pike emerged on the roof as Lena waited with a big smile and threw herself in to his arms nibbling at his neck as he smirked, "Okay," Pike began, "We all know why we're here. Set up a watch point in the corner and don't keep your eyes off them. That bastard Raimi shouldn't have that tank, it's mine. We're not going home until we find out where they're going and until we get that tank 'a theirs. Got it?"

"All clear," Annie explained as they went through the last room.

"Good," Greg replied, "Tell those fuckers out there that we have the second floor." Annie sighed waving the bat in her hands and walked over to the room at the end of the hall and stood looking out the window, "All done," Annie said.

"About time," Neeson replied.

"Is Greg alright?" asked Iris.

"He's fine," Annie assured her. She stood back and walked in to the hallway as Greg carried the bodies into a room dragging them back forcing his disgust away.

"You need any help?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine," he replied wiping off his sweat, "Hide the bat."

"Really?" she asked with wide-eyes.

"If they try anything, just use it, okay?" he advised her. She nodded and went into a room and he called to her, "Hey!" she turned looking to him, "Only as a last resort," he advised her. "I know," she replied rushing into the other room. She knelt down and hid the bat under the railing of the bed and stood up rushing over to the window. "Come on, people," Raimi ordered, "We don't have forever." Iris and Rob climbed up the house and Carver and Neeson handed them the crates as Iris panted handing the crate over to Annie who rushed back to the rooms.

"Home sweet home," Neeson proclaimed with a chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah," Carver replied. Annie rushed back and forth handling the crates as Greg closed the door to the room housing the bodies and locked it. He walked over to her and grabbed the crates putting them down on the side of the hallway and stood back as Iris and Rob entered the house.

"Wow," Iris marveled, "Nice place."

"Are you okay?" asked Rob.

"Yeah," Greg replied, "It was nothing, really."

"Were there any of them in here?" asked Iris.

"Two," replied Annie, "They're gone now. Don't worry."

"Good job," Raimi declared walking in to the room as Neeson and Carver climbed in to the room, "How many were here?"

"Two," replied Annie, "We took care of them."

"Threw them around a little bit?" Raimi joked.

"Sure," Greg replied, "But I do better with live people." Raimi and Greg met eyes with sly smiles, obviously a mutual challenge by Greg.

"Are you sure this place is safe?" asked Iris.

"It's as safe as it's going to get," replied Greg, "Don't worry."

"Where are we sleeping?" asked Rob.

"You four get the room across the hall," Raimi explained, "We get this room."

"Why do we get the room with a small window?" asked Iris, "Wouldn't it be safer if we all slept in one room?"

"No," Carver replied, "If anything happens you four can distract those things while we make a break for it." They chuckled as Annie and the group sighed angrily.

"So?" Neeson said, "Go."

"Fine," Iris replied coldly.

"Oh, man," Neeson muttered softly watching Annie walk off, "Let me at that piece of ass." He stepped forward as Raimi pushed him back. He looked to him surprised at his action and shrugged, "Keep it in control," Raimi advised sternly.

"Oh come on," Neeson argued, "A girl like that is begging for discipline."

"Right, and while you're doing that to her, that big black motherfucker over there will snap your neck in half," Carver explained.

"Please," Neeson insisted, "I could take him."

"Yeah, yeah," Raimi replied, "Take a break and do something, but leave them alone until the right time, okay?"

"Okay, okay," Neeson replied turning to walk off, "I can wait anyway." The four walked in to the room which was obviously the daughter's. It was small, but they could afford to fit all four in to the small confined space, but Raimi was right, it was a death trap and god forbid any of the walking dead decided to get gutsy, they were dead for sure. Annie sat at the foot of the small bed with the cherry red blankets and looked around with a soft sigh. "Damn it's quiet," she muttered. Greg quickly went to work as always. He placed the lamp down on to the floor and grabbed the small pillows throwing them on to the ground as he tore all the sheets from the bed and draped them on to the floor "Who's taking the bed?" asked Greg.

They all looked at one another for an answer and there was a silence, "Fine," Greg explained, "I'll take the floor, the three of you decide among yourselves. **_Without_** arguing."

"Don't bother, I'll take the floor," Annie declared, "You two are on the bed."

"Thanks," Iris replied softly and coldly kneeling down on the bed. She turned and quickly rushed to the door locking it as Annie huffed, "That will definitely keep them out," she boasted sarcastically.

"Shut up," Iris replied, "Its safety."

"You think those bastards won't break down that wood door?" Annie proclaimed.

"Shut up, Annie," Rob replied.

"Fuck yourself, Rob," Annie replied.

"Tell me, because I've been dying to know," Iris asked.

"What?" asked Annie.

"Were you this much of a cunt before all of this happened?" asked Iris.

"Well, you know us traitors," Annie joked standing in front of a television. She leaned down clicking the channels as Greg furrowed his brows, "What are you doing?" he asked. "Nothing," she replied, "Force of habit, I guess. It's eighy-thirty; my favorite show should be on about now."

"I never got to see how "Survivor" ended," Rob replied with a smirk.

"Oh god," Annie said with a disgusted groan, "Reality shows; the most ridiculous, unoriginal invention of mankind."

"They were dumb fun," Greg replied with a groan as he lay on the floor, "Ever see "The Amazing Race"?"

"Yeah!" Iris replied enthused, "That was good."

"I was mostly music videos," Annie explained, "I was always keeping up with the new. Whether it was hacks like Britney Spears, or pure rock. Never cared for television shows, especially with the crap they were giving us. I used to sit in the bus and watch television for hours and hours without sleep."

"My mom and dad used to hate letting us watch so much television," explained Iris, "but they let us watch a good amount of TV, anyway. They only wanted us to read and go to school. She was so over-bearing."

"At least your mom cared about you," Annie explained, "My brother was my mom and dad," she gave a big smile, "When he heard I was getting picked on in school, he used to beat to beat the shit out of them, man they didn't stand a chance. When I dropped out he gave me a guitar for my birthday, and it just happened. You know? I… lost touch with him for about a year… and before I could call him, this happened. I never got to tell him…" Greg patted her hand consoling her as she fought back her emotions, her lip quivering in sadness. "It's okay," Greg replied.

"No, it's not," she replied storming off. She unlocked the door and swung it open running to the bathroom and sat down on the lid wiping her teary eyes.

Later that night everyone slept, even the three on the other end of the hallway as they slept scattered along the room, the window wide open just in case. She couldn't sleep a wink and tossed and turned along the hard surface of the floor covered by the thin cherry red blanket, but it could very well have been covered by a piece of paper, the floor was still hard as a rock, and very uncomfortable. The night was unusually quiet, but in the alleyway, like rats, the dead rustled in the garbage as cats screamed running off disturbed, and the wind blew against the walls as if they were about to collapse on to all of them, but she didn't care.

She sat up slowly, looking around at the darkness and slid open the little girl's closet. She figured since she wasn't sleeping, she may as well go searching around, and for once searching a confined dark place didn't set off a rumble of fear within the pit of her stomach. Maybe it was because they'd cleared the place out, or maybe because she knew deep down inside of her, her insanity was slowly deteriorating. That became evident both to her and Greg when they went in to the house, but she'd given up trying to figure when it was that everything crumbled for her. But she knew everyone in that house was also deteriorating mentally, she didn't doubt it.

Going through the closet, a small closet with sky blue wallpaper and clothing hanging from the bar made everything seemed normal and pure, almost like nothing had happened. She wanted to crawl inside and just live there without bother, she wanted to desperately find a place where nothing had been disturbed, she felt it, deep in the pit of her stomach, she was desperate for the normal world she lived in, that place where turmoil meant having to travel for three days on a smelly, closed in bus, where turmoil meant having to try to sleep while Denny and Ethan argued and snored louder than an elephant, she longed for the turmoil that meant having to stay awake for two days straight while they toured, or hearing the arguing from her mom and brother in the other room. She didn't know how much longer it would be before she took a gun to her head and ended it. But there it was, the memento of the past, like a silver shining relic of the past she grabbed at with a relieved gasp and wide-eyed enthusiasm of a five year old child on Christmas.

"Ready, Rudolph!"

"Ready, Santa!"

"Full power!" Rudolph's nose with a loud whiz lit up like a light bulb and through the snow, Santa and Rudolph took off as the score began. The portable DVD player was charged, thank god. It was the little girls she'd discovered in the closet, the best find she'd ever had in months. Clean and pristine, it was a memento she'd cherished, and now just a fossil of a once thriving civilization in ruins, but she enjoyed it, she gleamed with a big smile and glassy unblinking eyes as she watched the old Rankin/Bass cartoon she loved as a kid, but now as she re-visited her past, she mourned for herself and the person she used to be. It was a warm bit of escape from where she was, and wished it wouldn't end, but as it did, she sunk down in her corner watching the blank screen.


	10. Midnight Rider: Chapter Nine

Soon after the cartoon had ended, she tucked it away back in it's closet on the floor. She wasn't sure why she put it there instead of taking it. Maybe, she was hoping someday someone could or would discover it too, like a time capsule. Perhaps it was a hope that things would go back to normal and someone would come to claim it. She slid the door closed and crawled over to her side of the floor and lay down to sleep. Her songs were no longer playing in her head, now it was the theme song from the cartoon that she remembered she'd mastered from a young age. She finally slept to what felt like ten minutes and awoke with a loud urgent knock at the door. They all sat up quickly as she raised her head quickly grabbing at her bat under the bed, "Open the fucking door!" Carver ordered. Rob quickly ran to the door and unlocked it, swinging it open as Carver pushed him aside, "What the fuck you think you're doing?"

"Sorry," Iris replied softly.

"Don't you fucking lock the door," he explained, "you planning on escaping or something on us?"

"Look at the size of this window," Annie replied softly in a daze pointing to the very small window, "You tell me who in the fuck can climb out that?" Carver furrowed his brows looking at the window, "I'll give you time to figure it out," Annie replied sarcastically, dropping her head on to the floor as he sighed, "Food," he muttered in a monotone, "Go get it." Rob and Greg walked in to the hallway picking food from the crates that were still in front of the guys' door. "What's in here?" asked Rob.

"I don't know," Carver replied leaning down, "Peaches, uh, corn, beans, all that shit. Canned food is the only thing that won't rot, so we grabbed all this. And water."

"How long are we staying here?" asked Greg.

"I don't know," replied Carver, "It's really up to Raimi."

"Morning," Raimi declared bare-chested, "Good night?"

"Not really, no," Rob scoffed.

"Yeah me neither," Raimi replied, "I could hear those fuckers out there."

"When are we leaving?" asked Greg.

"Why you're bored?" asked Raimi.

"No," Greg replied, "It's just it's not safe to stay in one place too long. They can gather, and surround us and then we're stuck, or we could be--"

"—We're staying until I say so, got it?" asked Raimi.

"You're the boss," Greg replied sarcastically as he walked off. Greg walked in to the room as Annie sat behind the bed with her knees up, looking down in to space, "Here," he said giving her a can.

"Ugh," Annie muttered shaking the can of fruit, "More of this."

"You okay?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "I'm tired, hungry, cold, uncomfortable, scared, uneasy, and I think I'm getting a rash on my leg."

"Really?" asked Greg with a smirk, "Why's that?"

"Well, when you wear a pair of jeans for a month without washing them or taking them off, it can happen," she joked.

"Well, I can't stop the other stuff," he explained, "but there's food in your hand. Be thankful you have that."

"I am," she replied, "It's just the three psychopaths living next door I'm not really all that thankful for, you know?"

"Don't worry about them," Greg replied, "I'm here, and they're not going to touch you, Rob, or Iris."

"Promise?" she asked holding up her hand with her pinky sticking out.

"Promise," he replied as they joined pinky fingers with a scoff.

"I slept a lot last night," Rob said walking in to the room, "It felt good to sleep somewhere safe for once."

"It was cold, though," Annie replied, "I had no sheets."

"Me either," Iris replied dropping on the bed, "Uh--you want the bed tonight?" Annie turned noticing she was talking to her and furrowed her brows, "Me?" she asked.

"Yeah," she replied, "do you?"

"No," Annie replied, "Thanks, anyway."

"What was your favorite part of "Rudolph"?" Iris asked with a smile.

"What?"

"You were watching it last night, right?" asked iris.

"How did you know?" asked Annie.

"I saw you," she replied, "I saw it too."

"I didn't hear you," Annie explained, "You were quiet."

"I know," Iris replied, "I'm good at that, right?"

"Yeah," Annie chuckled, "Never knew you could play possum."

"I had to do it a couple of times," Iris replied, "But tell me." Raimi sat at the edge of the bed twirling the chamber of the gun spinning it and clicking it back, and twirling it and clicking it back. "Damn, it's sunny," Carver replied looking out the window covering his eyes from the bright sunlight.

"That's a first," Raimi replied.

"I'm bored," Neeson declared, "Hey, I have an idea, why don't we shoot the guys and take the girls in here and have a little fun?"

"God," Carver said with a laugh, "You're fucking sick."

"What do you say, Raimi?" asked Neeson, "You can get the skinny blonde one. I want to hear what they sound like when they're crying."

"No, we got to get going soon," Raimi replied, "And they're not bothering me."

"So?"

"So, I don't kill anyone unless they're bothering me," Raimi argued.

"Well, they're bothering **_me_**, isn't that enough?" Neeson insisted.

"No," Raimi replied, "Now shut the fuck up and sit down, would you? You been busting my balls since we got here, Christ."

"What, I--?"

"Sit down," Raimi ordered, "I might just have to blow your fucking brains out soon." Neeson sighed flashing him the bird and stormed off.

"You're pretty happy today," Carver replied.

"They're watching us," Raimi replied.

"Who?" asked Neeson.

"The heart beats I was talking about," Raimi explained, "Last night there was a lot more noise than usual, and I saw the glare of something near that store we passed."

"Maybe it was that man we saw," replied Carver, "You did ignore him, remember?"

"Just keep your guns close to you," Raimi suggested, "Tell Neeson to watch his back, and keep an eye on the tank."

"You thinking it was those nomads we saw on the way in to the city?" he asked.

"It's very possible," he replied, "No way in hell are they going to take my tank."

"Maybe," Carver began, "Maybe Greg was right."

"About what?" asked Raimi.

"Maybe we should get going?" he asked concerned, "You know before we get surprised or something."

Raimi looked forward and gritted his teeth annoyed as he realized Greg was right after all. "Fuck," Raimi muttered softly, "Yeah, we probably should be going. I hate that fuck face, I really do."

"You're just mad because he lifted you off the ground like that when you first met," Carver joked.

"Fuck you," Raimi replied jokingly, "Just do me one favor."

"Anything."

"If that black motherfucker or one of his kids tries to sneak up on me," he explained, "Kill them, and make it painful."

"Got it," Carver replied quickly. They shook hands as Raimi walked off, "You know I've been thinking."

"What about?" asked Raimi.

"What if Greg isn't so bad?" asked Carver uncertain.

"What?" Raimi asked, "You taking his side?"

"No--" Carver argued.

"—don't fool yourself--"

"—I'm not!" Carver insisted as Raimi interrupted yet again, "Because they **_will_** kill the first chance they get, you understand me? They will."

"Hear me out, alright?" asked Carver.

"Speak."

"Stop interrupting me for a fucking second and listen," Carver argued, "I seen Greg out there. He can shoot, he can fight, he knows how to do it. All I'm saying is it might not be a bad idea if we confided in him a little more."

"Out of the question."

"Listen, man," Carver insisted, "I don't want to die, and I sure as hell don't want to be eaten. If there is a chance those fuckers are out there waiting, it might be good having Greg watching our backs. He's big, he can handle himself, and I know you don't want to die. And Annie ain't such a bad partner, either."

"Okay," Raimi replied, "We'll go down, give them back their guns, and we head out later, then we all find a nice little closed in area, and when we're all asleep they'll blow our fucking brains out, sound nice to you?"

"You're paranoid," Carver declared.

"I'm surviving, got it?" Raimi replied.

"You're getting off your rocker, that's it," Carver declared, "You're losing it."

"Shut up," Raimi ordered.

"So we're just going to run around keeping an eye on them the whole time?" asked Carver, "Think. Maybe if we let them trust us a little more, they might not be scared of us."

"I know what I'm going to do with them once we get to the check point, okay?" Raimi replied.

"What?" asked Carver.

"Don't worry about it," Raimi replied.

"Tell me," Carver insisted.

"When we get there, we're going to shoot Greg and that pussy Rob, and we're trading in the girls for some supplies—okay?" Raimi declared sternly.

"You're nuts," Carver replied.

"Fuck you," Raimi replied.

"You lost your fucking mind," Carver insisted.

"Shut up!" Raimi said pushing him in to the wall. He drew his gun pointing it at his cheek as Carver put his hands up looking down in surprise. "You think I won't kill you? Huh?" Raimi explained.

"God, Raimi snap out of it," Carver declared, "we're brothers."

"I'm the one running this thing, got it?" Raimi replied, "You thinking about trading me in for four strangers? You're fucking stupid. I will do whatever it takes, even if it means killing a traitor, you got it?"

"Yeah, yeah," Carver replied nervously, "You made your point."

"Watch your step." He stood back holstering his gun and stormed off a Carver stood up against the wall looking on in surprise. That's never happened before, and it was clear he was no longer safe.

"What happened?" asked Neeson.

Raimi burst through the door of their room as Annie stood up in surprise, "We're heading out in an hour," Raimi explained, "So be ready."

"I thought we were staying?" asked Iris.

"I don't like it here," Raimi explained, "We're also being followed."

"It's those nomads right?" asked Annie.

"Yeah," replied Raimi, "So pack your things up, we're leaving soon." He slammed the door behind as Annie looked on confused. "That was weird," Rob declared. "You heard him," Greg replied annoyed, "We should get ready."

"Oh, that is a mighty fine tank that fucker has over there," Pike declared, "God damn it. That Raimi is one lucky motherfucker."

"We should do it, now," Lena suggested, "Send someone down there to scope it out while the tank is alone."

"Good idea," Pike replied lowering binoculars from his eyes, "Harris, you go over there and see if you can scope out that thing."

"Now?" he asked, "All those things are down there."

"What are you afraid of most?" asked Pike, "Them or me?" Harris thought for a second and gave a heavy sigh jumping in to the store below.

He rushed along the street as they walked past him, reaching out to him weakly as he yelped softly and plowed through them with his gun in tow. The group began chuckling as he wrestled some of them to the side and slowly snuck across the street reaching the corner looking up at the huge tank that was parked by the front of the house the group was in. He quickly climbed the top of the tank and panted looking around as there was a brief silence and mounted the top of the tank readying him self to climb in to the cockpit as he heard a loud click from behind him. He turned looking at a large barrel pointing right between his face, Raimi stood on the tank halfway inside the cockpit pointing dead bang, "Holy shit," Carver exclaimed as the group rushed to the window watching.

"Who is that?" asked Iris.

"No clue," replied Greg.

"You take one step, and I'll paint the floor with your brains," Raimi threatened.

"Wait," Harris replied, "I'm not one of those things."

"I know," replied Raimi, "And I don't care."

"I didn't—I mean--"

"--Yeah," Raimi replied, "I know what you mean. You're from those nomads, right?" Harris nodded, "You're about as quiet as those things down there. Where you guys camped out at?"

"O-On top of that store around the corner," he replied pointing back.

"I knew it," Neeson muttered.

"Say hi, everyone," Raimi replied noticing the group looking on without moving. Harris looked over to them with fear holding his hands up.

"Give me your gun," Raimi ordered. Harris quickly gave him his rifle which hung from his shoulder as Raimi yanked it and dropped it in to the cockpit of the tank.

"My boy Pike wants to speak to you," Harris explained.

"I bet he does," Raimi replied, "Tell your buddy he ain't getting my tank. Understand?"

"Yeah," Harris replied.

"Run," Raimi replied. Harris turned scurrying nervously and began sprinting past the walking dead. Raimi raised his gun, lowered it again and pointed shooting him in the back of his leg with a loud boom. He dropped in front of the store as Pike and the nomads gazed down in surprise gasping as Harris turned on his back letting out a horrifying cry as the walking dead gathered around him. He turned and tried running painfully cowering along the floor as they gathered in groups growling and viciously tore in to his body.

Iris and Annie turned their faces in horror as Pike looked down at him watching them tear his body limb from limb as his cries faded. They dug their nails in to his chest and tore it wide open as there was a sprinkle of blood that splashed along their rotted faces. His mouth was still open wide as the tore in to his neck with their teeth quickly detaching it as others bit in to his arms.

"Motherfucker," Pike exclaimed.

"I think he's trying to tell you something," Lena joked.

"Oh my god," Iris muttered near tears. It was amazing to the group of their hostages what he'd just done without conscience; even Neeson and Carver looked on in a bit of shock. While he and Carver were the basic psychos by nature, Raimi never really killed unless he deemed it necessary, but to them it was just an unnecessary action on his part. Raimi held the gun up and looked over to the group stone-faced. It was a clear threat to each and every one of them that if they crossed him, they were as good as dead.


	11. Midnight Rider: Chapter Ten

"What are we going to do?" asked Iris panting in panic.

"What **_can_** we do?" asked Rob, "There's nothing **_to_** do."

"We have to do something," argued Annie, "He's a fucking psycho-path, you saw that, right?"

"We **_all_** saw it," Rob replied.

"Relax," replied Greg.

"He's losing his mind!" Annie declared in a whisper, "Did you see that?" Greg nodded, "We can make a run for it," Iris suggested.

"A run for it?" asked Rob, "How?"

"We can run out the back door downstairs," Annie explained, "We can just bolt."

"Don't be stupid," Greg replied.

"We'd never make it a mile," Rob replied.

"How so?" asked Iris.

"Well, we have to take many things in to consideration," explained Greg.

"Like what?" asked Iris.

"Well, we have no guns, no supplies, no food," Greg explained, "and we have no idea how many of them are roaming around the surrounding areas."

"Not to mention those nomads Raimi mentioned," Annie explained.

"We'd all be dead within the hour," Greg proclaimed.

"Then what do we do?" asked Annie.

"We just keep tagging along with them," Greg suggested, "Because whether we like it or not we really need them more than they need us. All we have to do is just keep watch each others back's, you know?"

"They're going to kill us the first chance they get," Iris explained concerned, "I know it, and we have to do something. Can't you think of **_anything_**?"

"Why is it always me? You think I have all the answers?" Greg argued annoyed, "I'm just as confused as you are, and I'm just as concerned for my life as you are."

"I was just asking--"

"—Well, **_quit_** asking," Greg argued, now looking at all of them. Iris lowered her head near tears, "I always have to make these goddamn decisions. You think I want this? You think I wanted to spend the rest of my life running around playing tag with undead cannibals?"

"Alright," Annie insisted trying to calm him down, "No one is expecting you to have all the answers, okay? We're scared is all."

"Well, it's time to start deciding for your own fucking selves. I'm tired of having to do everything to watch you three," Greg declared, "I don't have all the answers, and I'm not going to be alive much longer, got it?"

"Why'd you say that?" asked Annie.

"Because it's true, Annie," he replied, "We could die any time now, and now is not a good moment where we should be depending on someone. Ever since this started all you that guys been doing is leaning on me, depending on me, asking me questions, and I don't know what to do half the time. You had a brain before me, have a brain now and start figuring some stuff out on your own. I'm not your **_fucking father_**."

"Then why didn't you just leave me to die back there?" asked Annie, "You could have saved yourself the trouble and left me to die."

"You know that's not fair," Greg argued.

"Alright then," Annie replied, "Wish granted, I won't ask you for anything from now on, okay?"

"Annie--"

"—No, you said it," Annie replied, "You got it."

"You're acting really childish right now," Greg declared.

"Yeah? And you're being a prick," Annie explained, "You have all the know-how, all the skills, and you're holding out on us because we keep turning to you. That's really nice."

"What more do you want?" asked Greg, "I imparted everything I possibly could to you three. I have nothing else to teach you."

"We want to live too, you know," Annie argued, "It's not our fault we don't know what to do."

"Yeah, well what's going to happen if I get killed tomorrow?" asked Greg, "Huh? I get shot, or one of those things kills me in my sleep, what then?"

"I don't know," Iris replied, "But you're alive **_now_**," she whimpered, "And we need you, I don't want to die."

"None of us do, Iris," replied Greg, "But I can't help you, anymore."

"So, that's it?" asked Annie.

"That's all there is to it," replied Greg.

"Fine. Do what you want to do;" Annie declared storming off, "You can go to hell for all I give a shit."

Greg sighed loudly as he watched he storm out of the room. Iris continued crying and he was just not able to respond. He was stuck in a corner; he was so tired of having to lead and take charge, but how could he let them down by just giving up? They were in immense danger, especially after the display Raimi put for them. It was the first time Annie and Greg really argued, it was the first time Greg wanted to stop fighting and stop trying, and it was the first time Annie, Rob, and Iris were in complete agreement, but when it came down to it they were really not so different. Three survivors looking for hope in a world void of it and whether Greg liked it or not, he was the hope, and he hated it. He knew what he was doing even when he didn't, and they were scared at the concept of losing him, because it meant surviving would become even more difficult, and it meant that all hope was lost.

Annie sat in the hallway listening to the clomping of their feet along the hallway and thought heavy and hard about the three in the room behind her. What was going to happen next was anyone's guess, and the prospect of the unknown frightened her, and as she hugged herself impulsively, she hated thinking she might be on her own, especially without someone like Greg around her, someone who gave her a real sense of security.

"You okay?" asked Rob.

"I'm busy," Annie replied looking down.

"I know you don't like me very much," Rob explained, "But I do love you as a friend."

"Why?" asked Annie.

"I like being **_around_** you… you seem to know how to survive." Annie huffed, "Me?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," he replied, "When we were in that store three months ago and you had those things chase you around leading them to Greg so he could take them out… I was thinking, "damn she's cool", you know? You just—kept your cool, and you were outrunning and out maneuvering them so easily."

"I was scared shitless," Annie laughed, "But we were hungry."

"I know," Rob replied, "And Iris would never admit it, but she looks up to you, too… she really does. I know I can't handle myself too well, but I think being around you and Greg kind of made me tougher and better."

"Listen, I'm sorry I was such a bitch," she blurted, "I was just jealous."

"Of what?" asked Rob.

"Of you… and Iris," she replied reluctantly.

"It's okay," he replied with a nod. There was a brief silence between then, "Greg is right. This is going to sound really trite, but we do have to stick together. If he dies… we're all we have."

"I know," she replied, "And if he dies, we're fucking screwed. I don't know what to do to survive, neither of us do. And I know those three fucks back there will do what they want to us if he dies."

"I know," replied Rob, "That scares me."

"Me too," Annie replied softly, almost as if she wasn't willing to say it loudly in admission to herself.

"We've taken something from him," Rob explained, "He taught us really well."

"That's true," she replied, "Not many girls my age can shoot a sawed off shotgun while crawling on the floor."

"Time's up!" Neeson declared loudly, startling the two, "Time to go kiddies."

"Alright," Rob replied coldly. They stood up and went to their room, Rob grabbed Annie by the arm, "If Greg dies," he assured her, "I'll take care of you guys… okay?" Annie nodded displaying a faint smile and walked in to the room as now it was back in to the wilderness.

"Ooh," Raimi said standing on the roof looking down, "The natives are welcoming us." Raimi looked down at a group of the walking dead, looking up and grabbing at them as he watched with a half smirk. They all rushed down on to the tank quickly running around and dropping the crates as the dead began gathering, "Hurry it up!" Greg declared as they all rushed in to the tank, "They're coming quick." Annie leapt on to the tank dropping down hard and attempted to rush up. She gave a loud yell as they grabbed at her legs growling and dragging her back. She yelped crawling up as the entire group all rushed up yanking her by the arms and pulled her back on to the tank with loud grunts as she panted loudly. "Neeson, start it up!" Raimi yelled as he grabbed Annie. "Fuck!" Annie screamed patting her clothing and checking for bites, "I hate it when they do that!"

"You were too slow," Rob declared mocking Raimi. Annie chuckled flipping him the bird as they all slipped back down in to the tank and sped off as the group of the walking dead followed behind grabbing at the wheels and attempting to climb on to the haul. "Fuck," Annie huffed sitting down.

"You okay?" asked Greg.

"Yeah, yeah," Annie replied coldly, "I'll survive."

"Hey!" Carver said calling her, "Little Annie."

"What?" she asked annoyed, still shaken up from the near fatal attack.

"Come up here," he called.

She huffed walking to the cockpit and stood over them as Carver handed her a CD case, "Want music selection?" Carver asked with a smirk. She furrowed her brows with a confused expression as Carver looked up at her, "What are you waiting for?" he asked.

"Really?" she asked suspicious.

"Do it or go sit back down," he replied.

"Sure," Annie replied. She grabbed their CD case and began shuffling through their collection of twenty CDs. Little did she know as she leaned down Neeson was sizing her up with his eyes, he looked over at her tits and butt and gave a hint of a smile, and she was oblivious to his leers, "Ah!" she muttered aloud with a smile, "I think the occasion calls for this song." She popped in the CD and loudly began the perfect song, Dave Edmunds' "I Hear you Knockin'", she bobbed her head and sat behind them as Carver gave a loud hearty laugh cranking the music up loudly.

The tune blasted loudly throughout the tank as she crouched down behind them listening to the perfect song playing for their current situation, and it was so ironic, even Raimi couldn't help smiling as he stood atop the tank watching suspicious activity off in the distance. As the song continued, Annie looked back and reached down in to their bag handling the guns and searching and finally found her pistol. She kept her eyes on them as she snuck the pistol back in to her leg holster and strapped it down as they were none the wiser. She turned and walked back to her seat as the song finished and silence passed through the metal behemoth. Above, Iris, Greg, and Raimi stood atop the ladder standing beside each other feeling the chilled wind that signaled a soon to be arriving winter, and they couldn't help but stare at the latcher's on who walked behind them grabbing at the wheels looking up at them with hunger.

"Do they ever stop stinking?" asked Iris.

"Doubtful," Raimi replied.

"Do they even think?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," replied Greg with a scoff.

"Bullshit," replied Raimi.

"I say if you can form a circle around someone," explained Greg, "You can think just fine."

"They can form circles?" asked Raimi.

"You'd be surprised," replied Iris.

"The smell is very strong though," Raimi acknowledged.

"Worst smell I've ever experienced," she replied holding her nose, "Can't wait until the winter when they start freezing."

"It will slow them down good," Greg declared, "It will give us much needed stealth, and it will whittle their numbers down."

"It will slow us down, too," Raimi replied.

"Strangest thing," Iris observed watching them growl at them, "Them going slow now." As the tank sped the walking dead walked behind them grabbing at the wheels looking up hungrily, "I remember--when the news broke out. They told us that though they were dead, they were running fast because rigomortis hadn't yet kicked in."

"Bullshit," Greg replied.

"That's so stupid," Raimi insisted, "Whoever thought about the concept of the walking dead running is a real fucking mental midget. There's a reason they're called "the walking dead"."

"They were running when it all started," Iris argued.

"It was a more temporary result," explained Greg, "Like when someone dies their body has an involuntary twitch or something. They're the walking dead they're not supposed to run."

"They're still hard to dodge, though," Raimi replied, "They've managed to corner me a couple of times."

"Where are we going **_now_**?" asked Iris.

"LA," replied Raimi, "We got to meet up with our crew, and then we'll see what happens then."

"And—then what?" Iris was afraid to ask.

"We'll decide when we get there," Raimi declared getting back down in to the tank. That small window of silence just happened to allow the group time to think and think hard about the situation they were in. Everyone was losing it, and their main concern at the moment was Raimi. He couldn't be trusted, but who could in that group as tensions mounted by the hour? Something was bound to give way sooner or later.

"Hey," Carver said to Neeson.

"What?" he asked chewing on a toothpick.

"You think Raimi would ever kill us?' he asked.

"I don't know," Neeson replied, "I wish I could say "hell no", but after that display he put on for all of us, I'm starting to think maybe. But then… he's your brother," Neeson argued, "He's been my best friend since we were, what like fifteen, and he would never betray us for some strangers."

"Five-hundred strangers," Carver re-iterated, "With guns and cycles, and who he can control very easily. In a group of five-hundred, there's not much use for us."

"You're wrong about him," Neeson insisted, "I know him well."

"I thought I did too," Carver replied sadly.

Rob gasped sitting up and looked around at with wide-eyes as Annie and Iris looked over at him,

"What's wrong?" asked Iris.

"Do you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?" asked Annie.

"I don't hear anything," replied Iris.

"Oh man," Rob sighed heavily as he leaned back, "I could have sworn I thought I heard a plane or something."

"A plane?" asked Annie, "Planes don't fly here anymore."

"It was possible," Rob replied.

"How is that?" asked Neeson with a scoff.

"It's possible," Rob protested, "They might come for us any day now."

"Them who?" asked Neeson.

"I don't know," Rob replied, "Rescuers, uh--"

"—The… **_government_**?" Neeson asked amused.

"Probably," replied Rob, "When this all happened they said on the radio that rescuers were going around looking for survivors."

"**_Bull_**shit," Carver replied.

"During the break out they said to lock our doors," explained Neeson, "They broke through them, they told us to head to churches, they broke through them, they said the infection wasn't a threat to the world, the world crumbled, and you know why the world crumbled?"

"No," replied Rob.

"Because all we did was listen and watch," Neeson replied, "We did exactly what was expected of us with this fucking disease. Every fat ass and couch potato in America sat on their asses waiting for a talking head on the radio to advise us and what did they do? Give us wrong answers, and before we could realize it, we'd died out. We didn't use our brains, and we didn't form our own answers and survival tactics, we didn't think for our self but instead had people do the thinking for us and let them give us the run around and then wondered why the world crumbled so quickly. All we did was sit and wait for some self-appointed religious zealot in a funny hat or some lame brain shit head in office tell us what to do and rolled over and died. We didn't think, we didn't plan and we took advantage of everything and we got killed off for it. The **_one_** thing we had over those fucking shit heads outside and we didn't use it. We didn't think for ourselves, you see? That's the beauty of it." He slid back chewing on his toothpick, "I say the end of humanity was a mercy killing."

"It's still possible," replied Rob sadly, "Mankind has re-emerged from disease. What about the black plague, AIDS? Civilization can come back."

"They did," replied Neeson, "**_They're_** civilization now, and **_we're_** the endangered species. This wasn't a disease, this was the apocalypse, don't you get it?"

"And a fucking perfect one at that," Carver scoffed, "We're the snake eating our own tail."

"Hey...," Neeson asked, "It's been about six… or seven months... so tell me, have you seen any planes or helicopters fly over us?"

"No."

"What have you heard on the radio?" asked Neeson. Rob thought and furrowed his brows confused, "There's no more radio," he replied. Neeson shrugged expectedly, "There you go."

"What's your point?" asked Annie.

"**_When_** do you assume they'll come to get us?" he asked annoyed.

"...I don't know..."

"Reality check, morons," Neeson replied tapping the side of his head, "**_No one_** is coming to get us. We're on our own. Haven't you figured that out by now? The government doesn't give a shit about people like you and me, my friend. They didn't bother saving the poor when it all happened. You know how many rooftops they passed over? How many malls, and stores they skipped without even bothering to look?"

"A lot?" asked Annie.

"Hell yeah," Neeson replied, "They never intended on saving the people who weren't wealthy or a stock holder. It was all just a lot of wind blown up our asses to keep us quiet, and we went along with the plans!" He cackled, "It's just so poetic." Rob slumped down in his chair as they gave him that stark realization, and it brought him down hard. Any hope he'd been holding out for the last months they'd been surviving were squashed. 


	12. Midnight Rider: Chapter Eleven

They were now in the countryside, steamrolling through the freeway's and dirt roads, running down the dead as the trees could be seen all around them, the thumping of the bodies against the gigantic metal behemoth had now become an acquired background noise that the group had grown used to, and it was a sweet sound, the sound that they were unstoppable, unreachable, invincible in that war tank, and while the hostages group was in jeopardy, they still felt safe tucked in the back sitting on the seats and dozing off and talking, the dead were still very scattered amidst the fields and brush walking up the hills and watching as the tank zoomed past them. The world, even months and months after the outbreak and carnage, was still doomed with nothing worth hoping for in sight. Farms were vacant and its owners were the walking dead, the farm animals in the distance stirred with fright as their owners rustled around their old homes, cows were lying along the grass as flies buzzed around them, obviously malnourished, the homeless scattered along the streets and children walked in packs reaching out to the living in hunger. There was no safety.

The tank suddenly came to a slow down in the distance in between rows of trees in a forest, as the wheels screeched loudly there was a loud thump that echoed within the back. Everyone came to attention sitting up as Raimi stood up from his seat rushing to the cockpit, and stood behind the two, "Why did we stop?" he asked.

"I don't know," Neeson declared shrugging, "We just stopped."

"Something stopped us," Carver replied. The three rushed up to the top as Greg and the other three watched on in suspense.

"What happened?" asked Iris. Carver, Neeson, and Raimi emerged from the top with their guns drawn and saw nothing but the usual small groups of walking dead and a sudden tree in the middle of the road in their way. Oddly enough there were really only two or three of the undead lurking about.

"A tree?" asked Raimi uncertain, "That's it?"

"It's a big motherfucker," Neeson acknowledged nodding disappointed, "There's no way we can take it out."

"How do you know?" asked Raimi.

"Look at that thing!" Neeson declared, "We'd have to have a bulldozer."

"Was that tree always there or something?" asked Carver.

"Hmm," Raimi muttered looking around. He saw the tree still wobbling unusually and then the gleam of an axe in the grass. There was a brief silence between then as they looked over at each other finally figuring it out, and a shot rang out blasting the top of the tank.

They flinched cowering down as suddenly a roar of shots followed blasting in to the metallic hull of the tank as they rushed down in to the tank. The crashing of the bullets against the tank roared like thunder as the three fell into the cockpit.

"Fuck!" Carver yelled covering his bloody ear.

"What's going on!" Iris screamed as everyone cowered.

"They trapped us," Raimi explained, "Those mother fuckers trapped us!" They all dove down to the ground covering their heads as the groups of nomads emerged from the trees, guns blazing like fireworks.

"Who are they!" asked Rob.

"Those nomads," Greg explained, "They want the tank!"

"They're not getting it!" Raimi declared.

"They'll kill us!" Iris argued as the shots rang out, "They'll kill us even if we give them the tank!" Annie screamed. Pike and the rest of the group sprayed shots all over the tank's foundation determined to draw them out, kill them, or destroy the tank trying.

"Shit," Lena replied lowering her gun, "They're not coming out."

"Keep it going," Pike ordered. Unfortunately for them their plan wasn't working, and to make matters worse, in the distance, their little war was attracting visitors, and they were creeping in on them very slowly and quietly making their way like cat burglars amidst the roar of the bullets.

"Oh shit," Pike's guard exclaimed, "They're coming! We have to clear the road!"

"I want that tank!" Pike screamed blasting the shotgun at the tank. Raimi and Carver dipped in to the bag of firearms they took from the group and grabbed their rifles and shotguns, Annie looked over scared, hoping they wouldn't notice, but amidst the carnage, and gunshots, they were too focused on the fighting.

"On the count of five we go up and start shooting," Raimi declared.

"What if we get hit?" asked Neeson.

"We'll wait for them to reload," explained Carver, "Or get distracted."

"Alright," Raimi declared. The nomads suddenly stopped and looked over at the dead who were creeping up on them, "Okay," Pike declared nervously as the dead's groups began growing, "Let's get the fuck out of here." They all began mounting their bikes and rushed off as the three heard the silence.

"They stopped," Carver acknowledged.

"On my count," Raimi muttered, "One, two…" They emerged from the cockpit and began blasting rapidly at the nomads shooting them down as the fire rang out between them. The bikers didn't notice the three as they arose from the cockpit and began starting up their motorcycle, but they weren't intending on letting them live and one by one the bikers were down for the count as they put a barrage of bullets upon them leaving them open for the kill.

"We gotta jet!" Lena screamed as the bullets whizzed past her face. The bikers took off as Raimi aimed and shot blasting their engine which launched them on to the ground with a horrible crash. She looked over to the field noticing the walking dead beginning to gather, now growling in hunger as they stumbled upon the wounded bikers digging in to them as their loud horrible screams echoed through the roads. Iris covered her ears hearing the screams. "Go, go, now!" Pike screamed taking off. Lena fell off her bike and screamed as the dead surrounded her. Pike called out to her reaching to her as one of the dead bit in to her leg. She cried out and rushed to him jumping on to the bike and they blasted off down the road, very few of the nomads followed.

They all began running to their cycles and began speeding off, but the dead had already crowded around them and began grabbing them as they fought them off and desperately screeched down the road. Raimi caught some of the men and began shooting their bikes blasting the engines as they were thrown off the cycles slamming on to the ground as the dead began having their pick. They didn't eat them right on the road. Some of them grabbed the bikers by their legs and dragged them in to the bushes and dug in to them as they cried out in horror. The bikers fought off the dead desperately clinging to their bikes trying to mount them in a futile effort, but it was already too late. The dead were biting in to them as they cried out trying to escape.

One biker crawled along the ground looking off in to space with a cracked skull mumbling to himself, his legs were badly mangled as the dead loomed over him kneeling down to grab at him and began eating at his knees and calves as he cried out, squirming and screaming along the ground, and then they began eating at his upper half. As he cried out in repeated screams and groan, they began chewing in to his face biting the skin from his face and tearing it off with their teeth as he shook violently, mumbling incoherently. "Oh my god," Neeson muttered watching most of the men from the nomads getting devoured on the ground by the dead.

"They took off," Raimi acknowledged as all that could be seen in the distance was the smoke trails of the motorcycles, "Yeah!" Carver yelled as they began clapping hands victoriously and hooting. Rob knelt down looking out through the slots from the cockpit watching a biker getting feasted on near a small patch of grass. He groaned in disgust as he watched two of the dead whom were fighting over a severed arm growling angrily tugging it back and forth as the hands' reflexes caused its fingers to continue to twitch even after separating from the body.

"Oh my god," Rob muttered with a sigh, "Don't these things ever get full?" Annie gave a heavy sigh, "I'm afraid to ask why you posed such a question," she declared.

"You do not want to know," Rob assured her turning away in horror.

"Get the fucking tree out of the way," Raimi instructed.

"How?" asked Neeson.

"Find a way," replied Raimi. He looked over to the biker who was already being eaten up and sighed in pity then blasted him in the head putting him out of his misery. It was the least he could do after such a horrible death.

"Blast the fucking thing," Carver suggested.

"Fine, fine," Neeson replied annoyed, "Let's hurry this up." Neeson closed the top hatch as they all climbed back down in to the cockpit and looked over at the three whom were still cowering, "Relax," Carver assured them, "We beat those shit heads." Neeson rushed to the cockpit and started the tank up. He pressed down on the gas and they slowly backed up down the road. Neeson aimed, turning over to the humongous tree trunk and shot blasting it to pieces as it exploded in to the air. Neeson cackled as they all regained their bearings and sat back down.

Annie sighed leaning back on the seat as Greg gasped softly looking down at her holster seeing her revolver. Annie gazed wide eyed and quickly knelt down pulling down her pant leg covering the weapon, "I can't believe it," Greg argued.

"Leave me alone," she replied.

"If they see that--"

"—They won't," she replied quickly, "It's for an emergency."

"What emergency?" he asked.

"Trust me," she replied, "It will come in handy just in case. I'm making my own decisions, okay?"

Greg nodded with a heavy sigh and leaned back in discontent nodding at her foolishness, "Don't worry about me, anymore," Annie suggested. Finally they approached the highway and there it was, still apparent as ever that a war raged between man and the undead, and man lost. Cars were still parked on the highways, trucks were overturned, and the city continued burning down to the ground as skyscrapers were crumbled down in to massive piles of melted concrete. "There it is," Neeson muttered with a nervous breath, "LA." The sign above them verified the horrifying notion in front of them as they entered the city limits, and all evidence of the living were gone from the once bustling city.

The smoke was thick amidst the air as Neeson looked out onto the skyscrapers now in shambles, once representative of western civilization and just were fossils. "Bad idea," Greg muttered.

"Don't worry nothing about it," Raimi warned.

"Where are the rest of the group going to meet us?" asked Carver.

"I don't know," replied Raimi, "We just have to look around for them."

"We're not in LA just yet," replied Neeson, "It's getting dark maybe we should just camp outside the city limits and find a place to sit."

"Yeah," Raimi replied still pondering, "Let's find some place to camp out for the night." They finally stopped and settled down in the middle of a park tucked away in the shadows to keep from being seen, and it wasn't possible since the night was so thick with smoke and the stink of fire and burnt human flesh.

"Oh god," Iris cringed in disgust, "That smell!"

"Get used to it," Neeson advised, "We're going to be here a while."

"Okay," Raimi explained, "We have work for you three." He stood up and climbed up to the top of the tank and looked around. The place was very deserted. It was likely that the dead were in the city area looking for human flesh. Below there were four picnic table overturned along the grass.

"Greg and Annie," Raimi began, "You guys go down and move those picnic tables up to the tank."

"What?" asked Annie.

"You heard me," replied Raimi.

"I'm not going out there," Annie argued.

"Do it," replied Raimi, "Or those things will have a new item for their menu."

"You can't expect them to go out there in the darkness," Iris protested.

"Did I ask your opinion?" asked Raimi.

"I don't care if you asked or not," Iris argued.

"Sit down," Raimi warned as Iris stood up, "Sit down--!" He drew his gun and pointed it to her as she gasped in fright, "Sit down… now." She sighed and lowered herself back down on to the floor as Annie and Greg stood side to side.

"Last time I'm going to tell you," Raimi warned.

"Fucker," Annie replied walking up to the hatch. She and Greg began climbing up the ladder and stood up at the top, looking around at the darkness that enveloped them. They could not see in the distance, but they didn't want to, anyway.

"Well, let's do this now," Greg explained.

"Fine," Annie replied walked on the top of the tank, "How far are we going to go before they decide what to do with us?"

"What do you mean?" asked Greg.

"They have something planned," explained Annie, "I just know it. But it's driving me crazy not knowing what exactly."

"Is it clear?" asked Raimi.

"About as clear as its going to get," replied Annie angrily. The three jumped down off the tank and walked through the grass looking out on to the darkness around them as they stood shrouded by the trees. There was not a walking corpse in sight and thankfully the coast looked to be clear. Annie and Greg lifted the picnic tables off the ground grunting and slid them off over to the sides of the tank.

"Hurry it up," Neeson ordered.

"Give me a fucking break," Annie replied.

"I'll break something," Neeson joked smacking her on the butt as she yelped standing back.

"Hey!" Greg yelled.

"Motherfucker!" Annie yelled punching him, "Don't ever do that to me again!" Annie screamed angrily, hitting him as he pushed her to the side. "Asshole!" Greg approaching him, "Ah-ah," Neeson muttered drawing his gun at him, "Back off."

"What the hell is going on!" Raimi asked atop the tank. Greg and Neeson made eye contact. Greg wasn't stupid, he knew he was out matched and Raimi would take Neeson's side if he explained his case. "Nothing," Greg replied angrily, "Nothing's going on." Annie scowled at him rubbing her backside as Neeson cackled. Raimi and Carver stood beside Neeson as he smiled slyly.

"What happened?" asked Raimi.

"Nothing," Neeson replied, "The nigger and the whore were mouthing off to me."

"Keep focused," Carver warned, "Last thing we need is you fucking this up."

"How do you know it was me who started it?" argued Neeson.

"I know you really well," Carver, "I seen the way you been looking at Annie. And I know what you got planned for her when we get to the checkpoint, too. I thought you only went for the really younger ones?"

"I know, but I'd be willing to make an exception for her," Neeson replied, "And what do you care?"

"I don't," replied Carver, "But I want to make it alive and starting a fight isn't helping our case any further."

"Sweet," Neeson mocked, "How about you focus on your shit and let me handle mine, alright? I'm not a kid." Carver scoffed and walked off as Greg moved over the last picnic table to the tank. Rob and Iris stood watching them as Raimi began loading his rifle.

"What time is it?" asked Iris.

"Probably ten," replied Rob, "I don't see anything out in the trees."

"Thank god."

"When you're finished up there, carry the crates up to the top of the vehicle," Raimi explained. Greg huffed as he brushed his pants off, "It's a good deal having hired hands," Neeson explained to Carver, "They're our very own grunts."

"Shut up, Neeson," Carver laughed, "They're our own little gofers," Neeson mocked as Greg walked by him. They'd finally settled in for the nighr and the three sat in the cockpit looking out in the darkness trying to watch for any signal they'd get from their crew, if it was possible.

"What did they say they'd do to signal us?" asked Neeson.

"They'd shoot a flare," replied Raimi, "But we have to give a signal too, maybe shoot the cannon or something."

"We have a flare gun," Carver replied, "Just shoot it out in to the sky."

"No one informed me?" asked Raimi.

"My apologies," Carver explained sarcastically, "I wasn't aware having a tool for emergencies was an attempt at under-minding your authority."

"Shut up and go to sleep," Raimi replied with a smirk, "Keep the flare gun handy for when we head in to the city tomorrow."

"Don't have to tell us twice," replied Neeson. Neeson reached in the white supply box under the cockpits controls and dug in to the box for the flare gun.

"Damn, it's cold," Annie whispered hugging herself and shivering as she wrapped her jacket around her.

"It wasn't this cold before," Greg declared.

"Not that I remember," Annie replied coldly.

"Are you ever going to get over what I told you?" asked Greg.

"What you mean your giant "fuck off" speech?" asked Annie.

"You know I was just upset, alright?" Greg argued.

"I have to pee," Iris whispered to Annie.

"What?" Annie asked in disbelief.

"I really have to pee," Iris replied scared.

"Take her outside," Greg asked.

"Fine," Annie replied huffing, "Let's go." They stood up walking over to the cockpit and began climbing the ladder. "Where are you going?" asked Carver.

"She has to take a dump so big it could choke an elephant," Annie replied sarcastically.

"Can we go outside to piss or what?" asked Iris.

"Hey," Carver replied shrugging, "No one's stopping you." They climbed up the ladder and walked out on to the top of the tank looking out on to the almost unending darkness. It was unusually quiet that night as there was literally dead silence, and no stars because the black smoke was still blanketing the sky and any traces of it.

"Fuck, it's getting cold," Iris said unbuttoning her pants.

"Sure is," Annie replied, "I used to love the winter, now I'm going to love it even more. It's going to slow those shit heads down to a standstill no matter what Raimi or his brain dead henchmen say."

"We're in the city, now," replied Iris, "How slowed down are they going to get?"

"Pretty fucking slow," Annie replied, "I used to live in the city. By January those shits heads will be popsicles and we can just walk by them and push them on their asses."

"Really?" Iris asked with an excited smile.

"And I imagine some of those deadheads went in to lakes and will be frozen under the ice," Annie boasted, "I imagine they can't swim."

"I always heard dead men float," Iris joked.

"No, they sink," Annie replied, "Are you done or what?"

"I can't pee," Iris replied.

"You said you had to pee," Annie replied.

"I'm nervous," Iris explained, "When I'm nervous I can't pee."

"Do what I do," Annie suggested, "Hum aloud. Or count down to ten."

"Alright," Iris replied with a heavy sigh, "Here goes."

"We'll leave out of here at around five," replied Raimi, "There's none of those things in sight, thankfully. We'll shoot off the flare, and then we'll wait for their flare and then we go in to the city."

"Are you sure you don't want to re-think your plan with them?" asked Carver.

"Very sure," replied Raimi, "If we stick to the plan… all three of us will be living pretty." Raimi patted Carver's back assuring him, "You blow Greg and Rob's brains out and we take the girls for the trade."


	13. Midnight Rider: Chapter Twelve

That night they'd all finally settled in and the hours seemed to draw on and on at a slug's pace. They were hidden for once, and seemed to have camped out a secluded place away from the walking dead, and any of them that actually found the tank must have just moved on, either way it was a notion no one in the tank wanted to fathom, for now they just wanted to sleep for as long as possible, but little did the three hostages know what awaited them in the city as soon as the boys got their way. Finally, came the dawn and the light seeped in through the slots of the tank waking up the group one by one.

Raimi was the first to awake spending most of the night looking up at the sky for the sun to rise. He'd awoken before everyone else and climbed up the ladder hoping to get a better view. Raimi opened up the hatch on the top and looked around. They were still all alone and hidden behind the trees which barely covered the skyline of the remaining skyscrapers and black smoke that cascaded the clouds. He stood on top of the picnic table and mustered up enough courage to go to the ground and began walking around. "What time is it?" asked Greg as he emerged from the tank.

"About 5:30," replied Raimi.

"Where are we going now?" asked Greg.

"In to the city," replied Raimi.

"So you're still going to LA?" asked Greg with discontent, "Despite the fact we're going to be walking in to hell?"

"Sure are," Raimi replied sternly, "We have to meet up with the rest of our crew and then we're moving on to the military base. There's civilization somewhere. Someone must have discovered a way to live peacefully amidst this infection." Raimi held the flare gun in his hand held his arm up and blasted it in to the sky as it burst in to the air. They stood still for a moment as he watched the trail of red smoke in the sky,

"What about us?" asked Greg.

"What **_about_** you?" asked Raimi.

Greg gave a heavy sigh, "Look, I know what you're planning," Greg declared. Raimi stopped in his tracks, turned in shock and furrowed his brows gazing at him in disbelief first impulsively playing dumb but soon thinking it was basically futile.

"The fuck you do," Raimi argued challenging his bluff.

"Look, I'm not stupid, okay?" Greg argued, "I know you never intended on letting us leave with you."

"How--?"

"I heard you tell Neeson and Carver what you were going to do with us once we met with your crew," Greg explained, "When we were at that house." Raimi sighed and turned crossing his arms,

"Okay," Raimi confessed, "Let's say I was going to go through with what I proposed, then what exactly were you planning on doing about it?"

"I'd do plenty," Greg threatened.

"Oh, really?" asked Raimi, "Well, last I checked you're outnumbered, outmatched, out of options, **_and_** **_ we_** have the firepower--" The group emerged from the tank crawling down, and instantly Annie could sense something was amiss and walked over to Greg as Rob and Iris stood at the hatch.

"Hey," she said in a deep tone looking over to Raimi suspecting something was up. "Good sleep?" Greg asked looking over to Raimi.

"What's going on?" asked Annie.

"Nothing--keep your guard up," Greg declared.

"So we going or what?" asked Neeson as he and Carver approached Raimi.

"Get on clock," Raimi warned quickly, walking off. He gave a loud whistle as suddenly Neeson turned and reached for his knife and Greg instantly snapped in to action yanking his arm and tackled him on to the ground. Annie, Rob and Iris gasped in shock as Neeson tore his knife from his sheath and swiped at Greg nearly missing him.

Carver emerged from the tank with his rifle in hand and swatted Rob in the back of the head with a violent smack and Rob fell in to the cockpit with a loud cry. "No!" Iris screamed frantically, jumping on Carver. They struggled violently; Iris tore at his face and grabbed at him as he threw her back knocking her down in to the cockpit as Annie rushed over to Neeson. Carver charged down from the tank dropping on to her and pushed her in to the tank. He pointed his rifle at her face, both heavily panting as Greg and Neeson struggled on the ground, "Don't make me, Annie," Carver warned, "I don't want to shoot you, but I will." She panted and spit at his face. He wiped his cheek and held the gun up, "You better shoot me," Annie warned, "because the first chance I get I'm going to kill you. I swear to god." He smacked her across the face violently with the butt of the rifle as she gave a yelp and she fell back slamming in to the tank and dropped violently to the ground.

Greg held Neeson's hand down as they struggled with the knife in his hand and Carver charged from behind him smacking him across the back of the head twice with the butt of his rifle as Greg grunted aloud. Greg attempted to get up as Raimi charged and kicked him across the face with a loud grunt. Finally he went down cold dropping on to the ground as Neeson panted heavily and coughed. "Shit!" Carver exclaimed angrily, "Motherfucker wouldn't go down." Neeson panted and forced himself and coughed aloud as he looked over at Greg. Greg was still conscious lying on the ground as Raimi approached. Neeson quickly rushed over to Greg and held his head up with his knife at his throat, "Alright Neeson," Raimi ordered as he stood back dropping his head on the ground, "Good work, boys," he declared, "Time to go."

"Well, what do we do with them?" asked Carver.

"We'll take the two in the tank, and Annie," Raimi explained.

"What about this fucker, here?" asked Neeson as he sheathed his knife.

"Leave him here," explained Raimi.

"What?" asked Carver.

"No, man," Neeson argued, "Let me slit his fucking throat. I've been dying to kill this black motherfucker since we met."

"No," Raimi replied, "We have to go."

"Come on," Neeson insisted.

"I said no!" Raimi replied, "Leave his ass here. He has nowhere to go and they'll come to get him sooner or later." There was a brief silence and then there was a blast in the distance and it drew their attention instantly as the flare blasted from the ground up in to the sky.

"There's the flare!" Raimi announced, "Time to go."

"Where do we put those shit heads?" asked Carver wrapping his rifle around his shoulder. "Get the rope and tie up the girls and Rob," explained Raimi, "and then we'll make a break for it. He won't last two hours out here during the day in plain sight."

"Fine," Carver replied uncertain.

"You're not pussying out on us, are you?" asked Neeson noticing Carver's confliction.

"Fuck you," replied Carver, "I'm not the one who just got the living piss beat out of him."

"He caught me by surprise," explained Neeson.

"Yeah right," Carver laughed, "You had enough time to gut his ass. He was faster and stronger. If I didn't get him from behind you'd be dead."

"Hey," Raimi interrupted, "If you're done sucking his dick, let's get a move on." Raimi rushed up to the top of the tank and climbed down in to the cock pit walking past Rob and Iris whom were out cold bleeding from their foreheads. Carver walked over to Annie's body and grabbed her easily swinging her on to his shoulder and towed her along the top of the tank as she groaned softly.

"I got plans for her," Neeson boasted pointing to Annie.

"We have to go," Carver interrupted.

"I'll meet up with you," Neeson replied standing over Greg.

"Neeson," Carver ordered, "**_Come on_**."

"I said I'll meet up with you!" Neeson replied angrily.

"Fucker," Carver muttered. He swung Annie over his shoulder and slowly dropped her in to the tank and looked over to Neeson. He unzipped his pants and began pissing on Greg's body and smirking as Carver gave a heavy sigh. Neeson finished and zipped his pants up. "You got real lucky, you black motherfucker," he muttered buttoning his pants, "Don't worry, I'll make good use of Annie." He repeatedly kicked him as Greg groaned and spit on him feeling very victorious, as he rushed up to the tank and climbed inside. Raimi sat at the wheel starting up the engine with a mighty roar as Carver continued tying up the three remaining survivors who were still out cold, except for Iris who watched in anger whimpering as she lay on the floor bound and gagged looking over at Rob.

"Alright, let's get the fuck out of here!" Neeson whooted, and sat down in the co-pilot seat beside Raimi. As they steamrolled through the park overturning trees and finally drawing attention to themselves, Greg lay on the ground outcold and badly injured. It took all their power to bring him down and he still wasn't outcold. He was in the middle of the park and Raimi's purposely loud exit left Greg vulnerable and prime for the picking. He groaned slipping in and out of consciousness and turned his head looking to the grass in the distance, as the noise from the tank faded off. He could barely see straight, nor could he really think straight. All he knew was that time was of the essence and he had to hide. He turned over on his side and groaned aloud attempting to sit up. Iris lay in the corner curled in a ball, her nose and head bleeding as Annie sat against the wall of the cockpit breathing heavily underneath her gag and looked over at the three who sat steering through the freeway joking and talking. Rob was still unconscious and bleeding heavily from his forehead as Annie squirmed around in her hand ties attempting to get to her pistol desperately.

He managed to push himself up to his knees and slowly crawled along the ground groaning and grunting as there was a deafening silence. He grabbed on to the ground pulling himself forward and finally found a small hill. He pulled himself forward and tumbled in to the grass rolling down the muddy hill violently and crashed into a small ditch. He panted and sat up slowly still very dizzy and crawled around the mud sitting back against the dirt wall looking out onto grass and trees. He was hidden very well beneath the dirt and muck, and none of the dead were around to find him. He held his head grunting in pain and thought about his friends whom were headed for death, and he could barely comprehend what was going to happen to Annie and Iris once they reached their checkpoint. He had to get them back, even if it meant traveling on foot.

Meanwhile as they finally approached the city's underbelly, the flare could still be plainly seen in the distance as the three sat looking around at the groups and hordes of walking dead that staggered through the shattered streets and flaming buildings. "This is hell," Carver declared gazing around at the soulless faces that stumbled past them, every building in sight were in flames as black smoke peeked out in to the sky.

"There's no way they're in the middle of this city," Neeson acknowledged.

"We have to keep going," Raimi replied, "We have nowhere else to go. They know the location of the military base out in Mississippi."

"I hope it's there," Carver complained.

"We'll wait and see," replied Raimi steering through the streets. The groups of walking dead stirred and began banging at the tank as the group became startled, "They smell us," Neeson muttered.

"Just keep going," Raimi instructed, "We'll find them." They'd quickly rushed through the city and it was every bit of hell Carver had insinuated and more. It was a wonder how their crew managed to hold up fort there for so long. Annie panted underneath her gag thinking about Greg who was all alone and most likely dead. Carver walked over to Annie looking down at her as she scowled at him angrily and shouted at him in a muffled voice under her gag.

"I'm sorry for hitting you," he replied indifferently, "I didn't want to, but he's my brother." He sighed and walked off as Annie gave a soft whimper finally beginning to shed a tear and looked over to Iris who was crying aloud looking over to Rob who was still out cold and most likely badly injured. Greg sat in the muddy water looking around as he heard the rustling of grass in the distance, most likely from the walking dead, but he was hidden well. He was cold and still pretty dazed from the smack in the head, but he was determined to snap out of it. He knew he had to or else he and his friends would be dead for sure. He stood up from the water and drudged through the muddy water which was knee deep. It was sewage and mud, and dirt that brushed along his legs as he quickly began rushing past the grass and looked up the hill as shapes brushed past him.

He ran through the water and began making his way up the hill grunting as he clawed his way to the top. He emerged from the grass as a dead woman groaned approaching him and he grabbed her yanking her by the neck as she fell down the hill slamming in to the water. He continued to make his way up to the top and ran along the park cowering behind trees and sprinted in to the edge of the park looking out on to the city. It would surely be no easy task to make it through the pits of hell in front of him, but he knew this place, he knew how to hide, he knew how to run, and his concentration was focused now. They weren't very far from the park, he deduced and he could make out their trail along the trampled dead and crumbled buildings and one way or another he had to get his friends back, even it meant dying, but he'd decided it was better than letting them be subjected to a life of torture and torment under sex crazed psychotic bikers.

"Where did the flare come from?" asked Carver who was quickly growing uneasy and impatient. "We have to look for it," Raimi replied.

"They have to be around here somewhere," Neeson explained.

"We have to get to that base," Raimi declared, "It's our only hope of surviving all of this shit. We have to."

"There!" Carver exclaimed pointing ahead looking over at a motorcycle.

"Shit," Raimi said with a sigh of relief, "That's Tommy's bike. He and everyone else must be here." They drove further along street and came to a screeching halt and looked out on to a group of motorcycles that stood beside one another and Raimi suddenly became excited.

"I'm going up," Raimi announced rushing up to the top of the hatch. He looked over to Annie who was staring angrily at him as he climbed up the ladder and popped open the hatch. He held up his binoculars and began looking around and suddenly caught sight of one of the crew. "Tommy!" Raimi screamed with a laugh, "Hey Tommy!" Tommy stopped and turned suddenly revealing his horrific appearance as the right side of his face was chewed down to the bone. He stopped for a second and gave a soft growl exposing his cheek bone. Raimi gasped aloud and sighed in horror, wide-eyed and amazed as his friend approached the tank.

"Oh, fuck," Raimi muttered with baited breath, unable to believe it, "Oh fuck…"

"Oh god," Carver exclaimed looking over at their friends who emerged from the corners, "That's not them…!"

"What happened?" asked Neeson in disbelief.

"What do you think happened?" asked Carver, "Oh shit."

"This can't be," Raimi muttered panting in shock; "This just can't fucking be." His eyes became wider with horror as he gazed over at his friend who turned and held a flare gun in his hand. He could barely muster up any words to express his shock as Tommy staggered to the tank with the flare gun in his hands. "How did they do it?" Raimi asked. He slid down the ladder and walked over to Neeson and Carver who were still in disbelief, "They tricked us," Raimi declared nodding, "Those motherfuckers tricked us. How the fuck did they learn to shoot guns?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Carver.

"They shot off the flare gun to lure us in to the city," Raimi explained, "Every one of the crew is the walking dead--"

"—Jesus Christ," Carver exclaimed watching his friends walk along the streets mangled and torn, "It must have been a fucking massacre here--"

"--and they tricked us," Raimi declared, "They fucking tricked us! They lured us in and now we're trapped." The dead all gathered from all corners of the city gathering around the tank and banging at the behemoth attempting to break inside. The hatch was too tall to enable them to climb inside, lucky for them, but they were surrounded and clueless as to what to do at that moment.

"What the hell do we do now?" asked Neeson growing alarmed.

"I don't know," Raimi replied. There was a muffled laugh behind them which caught Raimi's attention. He turned to see Annie laughing underneath her gag with tears in her eyes looking over at them. Raimi furrowed his brows in anger watching her cackle, "What the fuck are you laughing at you cunt?" he asked kicking at her, "Huh! You think this is funny! You're just as fucked as we are." She stopped laughing and silently looked up at him as he drew his gun and pointed it to her head pressing it against her forehead. She didn't flinch but waited for the shot to go off.

He drew the gun back and tore off her gag as she panted with a loud sigh, "You evil mother fuckers," Annie exclaimed, "You're dead. You're all dead."

"You're in just as deep as we are," Raimi replied.

"And who do I have to thank for that?" she asked, "You thought you were so smart knowing where we were going to go."

"You were dead without us," Raimi argued.

"But at least we weren't walking in to traps set by **_them_**."

"You're stuck here, just like we are," Raimi insisted.

"I don't give a shit, anymore," Annie explained, "Do what makes you happy. It's just funny."

"**_What's_** so fucking funny?" asked Carver, "You think you'd have more fun being torn to pieces by those mindless things out there?"

"You think I care?" Annie assured him, "I'd rather be eaten and torn to pieces than be held hostage by you monsters. It's just so funny," she said looking over to Rob who was still unconscious, "The all-mighty, all intelligent Raimi and his two stooges were outsmarted by walking mindless corpses," she laughed, "They can't even think, but they were way more intelligent than you. Let's not kid ourselves, we're all as good as dead, but the funny thing is you three walked us right in to the gates of hell, and Greg was right all along—it's times like these that make me think there may be a god after all--" Raimi slipped the gag back on her mouth as she angrily yelled muffled under the gag.

"You're going to regret running your mouth off," Raimi warned.

"What do we do?" asked Carver.

"I'll think of something," Raimi assured him, "Just keep driving." The tank pressed along through the streets as Greg managed to make his way through the city without being noticed. Amidst the droves of walking dead that inhabited the Los Angeles, there were crowds, and it was all just as he had remembered it, walking dead, blank faces, and unending flames. He rushed through the street and slid under a car as they walked past him oblivious to his presence. He could still hear the tank and knew what direction it was going in as he heard the creaking of the wheels pressing against the concrete. How he would get across the street was a whole issue altogether.

Finally as they pressed on for blocks, they came to a halt where there were hardly any dead present and stopped in front of a building that was vacant, the whole front of it was blown away exposing a hill of rubble and empty rooms, "There," Raimi declared pointing to the small building.

"We camping there?" asked Neeson.

"We'll camp out there, park the tank really close to the front so we can just walk on to it," explained Raimi, "and in the morning we can just make our way to Mississippi somehow and look for the base… if it's still there."

"It may not be," Carver confessed.

"How do you think?" asked Rami.

"Well, if the crew was taken out," explained Carver, "What makes you think that place hasn't? What makes you think it **_ even_** exists?"

"It does," Raimi insisted.

"How do you know?" asked Neeson, "I mean all everyone ever said was "I heard" there was a base—I mean it's probably just a rumor—"

"--It just does!" Raimi declared, "It fucking _**has**_ to."

"Alright," Carver replied with a nod of discontent, determined to humor Raimi, "Fine, let's get this over with before anymore of them find us."


	14. Midnight Rider: Final Chapter

"Good," replied Raimi. They finally pulled up to the front of the building and stopped at the foot of the room. Raimi popped open the hatch and dropped on to the tank and began climbing up on to the room that was in clear view, the walls now reduced to rubble. "First bring up the supplies," Raimi explained, "And then bring up the hostages." Carver looked over to Neeson with a heavy sigh knowing that they were just chasing their tails now. Raimi wasn't certain where the base was in Mississippi, but Raimi wasn't about to give up that quickly. They rushed back and forth carrying the supplies and stacking them down on to the floor and then Carver grabbed Iris off the floor as she whimpered looking over to Rob.

"Come on," Carver muttered sternly, carrying her over his shoulder, "Don't make this hard on yourself." Neeson knelt down standing from the top of the cockpit and yanked Iris by her coat pulling her up as Iris groaned being choked by the collar of her jacket, but Neeson didn't really seem to care much and threw her over his shoulder. Iris gave a soft cough over her gag as Neeson placed her on to the floor in front of Raimi who was gathering the supplies and surveying the area. Iris looked up at Raimi angrily as he scowled at her turning his back to her. Carver grabbed Rob off the ground and threw him over his shoulder as his arms dangled, bound and tightly restrained, "He's still outcold," Carver told Neeson as Neeson picked him up from the hatch, "You hit the motherfucker hard," Neeson joked, "What did you expect?"

"Just put him down beside that bitch," Carver ordered. Neeson carried Rob over his shoulder and dropped him down beside Iris who looked over at him whimpering. Carver grabbed Annie and yanked her hard as she groaned in pain and Neeson grabbed her from above and threw her on his shoulder patting her butt with a low chuckle, "Relax," Neeson replied as Annie groaned in disgust, "You'll get used to this." He strode over to Iris and Rob's side and dropped Annie on to the ground with a loud thump as she groaned cringing in pain.

"Alright, let's get settled," Raimi declared.

Carver looked back seeing someone move close in the distance and shrugged quickly jumping on to the ledge dragging the three behind them. Raimi shot down two walking dead that loomed inside the apartment complex growling at them and opened the door to a small room looking out on to the city. They were on the last floor, but the building they inhabited at the moment wasn't infested, "Alright," Raimi said sitting down in the corner as Carver and Neeson dragged the three hostages inside the room.

"Why don't we just leave them out in the hallway?" joked Carver.

"No," replied Raimi, "We'll stay here for the night and head out again tomorrow." Raimi walked past the group and walked over to front of the floor looking around at the empty rooms. It was all vacant from what he could tell, and luckily they were all alone. He walked over to the fire exit and jammed it shut looking down at the dark escape stairwell.

"All secure?" asked Carver.

"From what I can tell," replied Raimi, "We're all good for now. Good thing we're only staying for the night."

"Best way to hide is to hide in plain sight," Carver declared.

"We'll find that military base," explained Raimi feigning confidence, "Then we'll be home free without having those shit heads tagging along."

"You really think there's an untouched haven out there?" asked Carver gauging Raimi for assurance.

"There has to be," Raimi explained, "You think someone hasn't thought about securing a large piece of land for safety? We'll find it."

Raimi turned and walked back in to the room looking over the three hostages angrily, now without a clue as what to do with them, "What now?" asked Carver looking over them. "We'll finish them off tonight," Raimi instructed, "Especially this one." Raimi kicked at Annie as she grunted angrily, "I want to personally finish her off." Annie mumbled angrily as she leaned her head against the wall, "For now," Raimi began looking over to Neeson, "Go relax for a while with her." Neeson grew a large smile and rushed over to Annie dragging her by the legs as she screamed out mumbling incoherently. Iris screamed out to her under her gag as she saw Annie disappear in to the hallway, her screams echoed in to the floor.

Raimi stood over Iris and turned her around as she whimpered aloud. Carver knelt down over Rob and placed his hand over his neck, looked up at Raimi and nodded sadly. Raimi sighed softly, "I knew you hit him too hard," Raimi sighed with a soft whisper. There was a stir outside that instantly drew Raimi's attention and he rushed out of the room running to the front of the building as he gasped aloud, "Oh fuck," Raimi exclaimed with a half smirk, "No way."

"What?" asked Carver as he looked out on to the neighborhood. Raimi took out his binoculars and laughed, "Look!"

Carver took his binoculars and chuckled, "Oh-ho shit!" he exclaimed with a hearty laugh looking down with binoculars. "Shit," he muttered now bearing a grimace. Greg walked along the street through the sidewalk storming through the crowds of the walking dead hitting them and pushing them aside as they growled trying to grab at him, he kept his eyes focused up at the two that looked down at him as Raimi gazed down with a half smirk watching him advance quicker and quicker,

"He's doing it," Raimi declared in surprise, "The motherfucker is actually crossing the thoroughfare."

"Oh fuck you," Neeson replied in disbelief, "He won't make it to the door."

"I'm serious," Raimi muttered, "And here he comes."

"Do I shoot him?" asked Carver.

"No," replied Raimi, "I'm about to make him wish he'd stayed at that park." Raimi turned running down the hallway, "And Carver?"

"Yeah?"

"If he comes up, and I don't," Raimi declared, "Blow his brains out." Carver nodded. Greg rushed up to the front door of the building and banged against it. They slowly gathered around him as he banged his body against the door and finally slammed all his weight in to the metal doorway finally busting it open, and rushed in to the lobby letting the hordes of walking dead in and rushed up to the gate that led to the steps and closed it behind him locking it. The dead groaned slamming up against the divider and banged against it. Greg stood at the foot of the steps and Raimi appeared at the top looking down.

"You're going to wish you'd stayed dead, motherfucker," Raimi declared pointing down, "You let them in!"

"Forget them," Greg proclaimed, "They're not getting in. Now it's me and you."

"Come on," Raimi said drawing a switchblade waving his fingers to him. Greg looked over at the knife and charged up the steps with a grunt as Raimi jumped on to him. They both crashed on to the steps with a mighty rumble throwing punches, but Greg outweighed Raimi as they fought off. Greg stood on top of him punching him again and again as Raimi fought him off knocking him off of him. Raimi finally let his wrist loose and slashed Greg's face as he yelped falling off him. Raimi punched him angrily across the head and stood over him driving the knife down.

They struggled as Raimi forced the knife down over his chest and grunted as the knife slowly made its way to his shirt. Raim quickly drew the knife back and quickly jammed the blade in to his stomach twice as Greg grunted. He kneed Raimi in the back and threw him down the stairs as Raimi tumbled down the steps falling in front of the gate as the dead stood over him outside the gate growling. The knife slid under the gate in the crowds of walking dead. Raimi quickly stood up looking over to Greg who waited, "See? I knew it. You're not so tough without your soldiers," Greg declared, "And you're weaponless now."

"I'll kill you either way," Raimi replied panting, "I drew first blood. And last I checked, that's not a good spot to get stabbed." He ran up the steps threw punches at him as Greg staggered back. They were now standing at the foot of the steps kicking and punching furiously. They were determined to kill each other, even as the crowds of undead onlookers quickly gathered below. And the hinges of the gate were weakening.

Raimi threw a punch knocking him against the wall and jumped on top of him wrapping his arms around his neck as Greg gagged, "My buddy Neeson…!" Raimi muttered panting as they struggled, "He's having fun with that little cunt of yours…!" Greg threw him over his shoulder knocking him on to the floor and kicked his stomach furiously. Across the hall Neeson and Annie struggled furiously as he took off her legs bounds and tore off her jeans finally revealing her panties as she screamed. She managed to break free from her wrist ties and tore off her gag jumping on his back tearing at his face and biting in to his shoulder as he yelped and threw her on to the floor. He furiously smacked her across the face knocking her on to the floor as fell outcold. He stood over her unbuckling his pants panting as he viciously eyed her nearly nude body over hungrily.

Annie groaned dazed from his powerful hit as Carver stood outside the door listening to the commotion down the steps pointing his gun. Iris finally managed to break free from her binds silently and tore off her gag. She crawled along the floor listening to the commotion in the distance and crawled over to Rob who lay on the floor, "Rob," Iris whispered tugging at him, "Rob, come on, we have to escape!" She desperately pushed at his body and yelped, "Rob?" Iris yelped crying silently kneeling over him, "No…!" She sighed wiping the tears from her eyes and tore off his gag and leg binds and stood up walking in to the hall. She saw Carver with his back turned and snuck up on him.

Raimi and Greg kicked and punched at each other furiously as there was a loud creak. They both stopped and looked down as the gate creaked and came crashing down on to the floor. The crowds of hands reaching out from the darkness emerged through the lobby and the growls and groans echoed through the lobby, "Oh fuck!" Raimi screamed. He stood up running as Greg followed and they stumbled through the steps, "Come on!" Raimi screamed as Greg rushed up behind. Iris ran with a growl and jumped on to Carver's back hitting and scratching at him as he staggered around the hall screaming. He threw her off him dropping his gun on to the floor and went to hit her as they both stopped looking over at the room.

A shadow emerged from the room as Rob staggered out from the doorway with a blank face. They were both stunned and confused as Iris scoffed in disbelief, "Rob…!" she muttered. Iris looked over to them and let out a loud growl confirming their fear. Iris' eyes grew white in horror as Rob slowly staggered towards them reaching out. "No!" Iris yelped. "Get off me!" Carver yelled. He drew his gun at Rob and shot blasting him in the shoulder as Rob staggered back growling, "Come on you motherfucker," Carver declared, "Just die already…!" Iris screamed hitting him over the head with a brick and hit at him again as Carver fell to the floor dropping to his knees. Iris tore the gun away from his hand and ran down the hall as Carver attempted to stand up and fell back. Rob quickly rushed over to him growling and jumped on top of him.

"Rob, stop…!" Carver yelped holding him up by the neck. Rob squirmed around and bit in to his hand as Carver yelled out and pulled his hand away Rob fell on top of him and viciously bit in to his neck. Carver let out a light scream as the blood gushed from his neck and squirmed along the floor trying weakly to tear him off. Rob chewed in to his jugular chewing and tearing viciously as Carver gagged still grabbing at him trying to pull him off. Iris rushed down the steps with Carver's gun and burst out of the fire exit panting and whimpering listening to the screaming in the distance. She blasted out from the door and looked out confused on to the streets as the dead spotted her and began making their way to her direction. She pointed the gun and shot one out of her way and sped down the street anxiously hearing the struggling and rustling in the distance. She didn't care about who lived or died, her brother was one of those things now and escaping was all that mattered. She slid in to a curb right in to a crowd that awaited her. She screamed and ran in the other direction.

She desperately slid under a car with her gun and looked around as they surrounded her banging at the van she hid under. She wiped the tears from her eyes looking for an exit and sighed. She gripped the gun in her hand shoved it in to her mouth and pulled the trigger. The blast rung out in to the distance as her head dropped on to the ground, her eyes, still open, gazed ahead in horror. Annie and Neeson continued struggling as Neeson tried to mount her and she punched at him knocking him back. Greg and Raimi rushed up the steps and stopped looking out on to Carver's body as Rob tore in to his neck hungrily and looked up at them growling loudly. Raimi quickly drew his gun and blasted Rob in the head knocking him against the wall, "Come on!" Raimi screamed.

"Wait, Annie!" Greg screamed.

"There's no time!" Raimi replied pushing him back.

Annie and Neeson fought viciously as the dead quickly rose from the steps in to the light and scattered along the hall. Three of the walking corpses knelt down beside Carver and held his wrists biting in to them eating at him hungrily and groaning in pleasure. The groups stood up against the door and banged desperately listening to the commotion. As Neeson finally mounted her Annie squeezed her legs under his stomach and kicked him back. "I've been waiting for this…!" Annie muttered. She tore the pistol from her holster and shot him between the legs as he cried out in pain. Hands crashed through the door as growls echoed in the room and they grabbed at Neeson's body as he screamed out in surprise and horror reaching out to Annie. Annie holstered her gun, took his shotgun, grabbed her jeans and jumped on to the boxes.

Neeson cried out in the grips of the dead as they tore the door down. Annie anxiously bashed the vent open and squirmed into the vent. Neeson's body disappeared in to the crowd of the dead as his cries faded; the crowds of walking dead tearing in to him. Annie crawled through the vent panting heavily and lay on her back putting her pants back on and scampered along the vents hearing Greg and Raimi rush through the halls. She quickly crawled along the vent and looked down as the two rushed up, "Greg!" Annie whispered.

"Annie!" Greg whispered looking up, "Come on…!" Annie tore the vent off the top and slid down dropping on to the floor.

"We have to get out of here," Raimi urged as they ran down the hallway. Raimi opened a door and quickly closed it as they all sought shelter.

"I don't think they saw us come in here," Raimi whispered locking the door. Greg staggered with a groan as Annie helped him sit down in the corner. Greg coughed holding his stomach as the blood poured from his shirt, "You're hurt," Annie whimpered pressing her hand on to his stomach.

"I'm fine," Greg weakly assured her sweating heavily.

"What do I do?" Annie asked softly whimpering.

"This is it," Greg declared, "I'm packing it in."

"No…!" Annie whispered in tears, "You can't--you can't die. I need you."

"It's time to go," Greg joked holding his stomach.

"I," Annie whimpered, "I didn't mean it."

"What?" Greg asked weakly.

"About you," she explained, "going to hell."

"Oh...," he replied grunting. He forced a weak smile, "I forgot all about that."

"I never told you… you're the best thing that ever happened to me...," she confessed, "I'd be dead if it weren't for you."

"Me too...," he replied panting, "I love you... I loved all three of you." She nodded in tears unable to whimper and caressed his face with her shaking hands and cried out as he began fading away.

"**_Please_** don't leave me...," she pleaded softly, "I can't do it without you... I need you... please? For me?"

"It's not my choice," Greg replied, "You'll do fine... I'm sure of it. I promise."

She leaned down kissing him on the forehead and wiped the sweat from his face. "You know what to do," Greg proclaimed. Annie nodded as she held her mouth crying.

"No mercy… okay?" he asked sadly.

"No mercy," She replied whimpering. She pressed her foot against his chest, "Press down hard," Greg whispered weakly. She nodded and pointed the shotgun down at his face. There was a brief silence as a shattering blast rang out in the distance. Greg looked down saddened and slowly opened the door. Luckily they weren't discovered.

"We have to go," Raimi said patting her back, "They'll find us."

"Okay," Annie whispered wiping the tears from her eyes, "Come on."

They snuck out the room and quickly walked up as Annie closed the door behind her. Raimi walked up ahead as Annie walked in back sulking over her cruel deed thinking about Greg's body back there. She held her shotgun in her hand sighing as Raimi stood in front of her.

"You ready to blast off?" Raimi asked looking back.

"We're not going anywhere," she replied. A shot rang out echoing into the air and Raimi fell forward on to the ground before he could turn. He panted grunting in pain and turned on his back looking up in surprise as Annie stood over him with a grimace pointing her shotgun down at him. She quickly rushed to him and violently smacked his face with the handle of the shotgun as he grunted leaning his head back.

She knelt down as he groaned and began stripping him of his bullets, belts, holsters, guns and stood up wrapping the belt on her shoulder. "You fucking bitch… you fucking bitch," Raimi muttered spitting blood from his mouth. She took two steps back and blasted his knee as he cried out in pain. The knee exploded from his leg from the impact as she cocked it and shot the other knee cap as he cried out grabbing his leg.

"See how you like being left for the wolves, you godless motherfucker," she declared.

"You fucking bitch," he muttered as he coughed spitting blood. She stepped over him as he looked up with a smirk spitting blood from his mouth, both of his knees blasted badly from their joints. She turned looking over to him and whistled aloud instantly calling attention to two of the walking dead who turned slowly looking over at them.

She turned and rushed off as they made their way to Raimi who lay on the floor helpless and unable to escape. He sighed and laid his head back on the floor awaiting his fate. She cocked her shotgun and walked out in front of the building which was now in shambles, and she was all alone, and there was the "Midnight Rider" purring and prepped for her. She held up the shotgun and began climbing it as the dead walked around her. She looked out onto the sea of dead faces and patted the tank like a kitten,

"Alright you big bitch," she declared, "Let's get rollin'." She climbed to the top and jumped inside. She sealed the hatch down and walked over to the cock pit and stood by the controllers.

She looked down at the bag of guns, and left over supplies, and sighed heavily looking over to the quiet passenger area where she once sat with her friends and allies. She whimpered softly and wiped the tears from her eyes. For Greg, Iris, and Rob, she had to keep on. She revved up the engine and began pressing on, equipped with a brand new behemoth, ready to stomp on some shit heads.

**THE END…**

**… Coming Soon: _The Dead Chronicles, Part Three: Eve of Destruction_**_ – A familiar face happens upon the beach and is discovered by a military squad, but is she safe? And a group of people are stuck in a library in the middle of the carnage._

**Disclaimer:** Author Felix Vasquez does not own the rights to Dawn of the Dead or the concept. Characters, scenarios, and "The Dead Chronicles" are a copyright of Felix Vasquez.


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